Some residents of the Longford Park area (Longford Ward) received a letter from Trafford Council dated 19/08/2020, informing them of a proposal to place a Low Traffic Neighbourhood Scheme that would result in large wooden planters placed on Norwood Road / Cromwell Road and Hillingdon Road to ultimately prevent access for motor vehicles restricting the right of way for all. The proposed was to be funded via the council making an application to the Emergency Active Travel Fund set aside by the Government in response to the COVID19 Pandemic.

The closing date for responses was declared as 23/08/2020, this gave residents only few days to respond. A copy of the proposal letter will be posted in the petition updates section for viewing.

Eight LTN schemes were proposed within Trafford in total, only two of these schemes were imposed by the council, these were Longford Ward - Stretford and Oldfield Road - Altrincham. All the other 6 were cancelled.

Important points:

• Not all residents had the chance to digest the information provided, deliberate freely and respond to the survey with only a few days notice given. A growing number of residents did not receive any form of communication about this.
• Those that received the letter and had access the internet, commonly found it difficult to access the survey online when typing in the link provided.
• No consideration or resources were provided to assist with the cultural diversity within the community to ensure social equality was maintained. Elderly and other vulnerable community members were missed from the original survey.
• No public representations have been made.
• There was no consideration given to how this scheme may affect disabled members of the community who rely heavily on the use of motor vehicles to assist with their right to independent daily living.
• Emergency services were not properly briefed on any road blockages resulting in confirmed delays to response times.
• There has up to now been approximately three road traffic accidents in the area within 2 weeks of the LTN being installed.
• No evidence of any risk assessments was carried out prior to the LTN being installed and no evidence of any safeguarding measures has been put in place for the two schools/children’s nursery or local scouts within the area.
• The council did not engage with any complaints at all, majority didn’t even receive a courtesy response to acknowledge receipt of their complaint. Where responses were received, they were impersonal and dismissive.
• The effects on the mental health and wellbeing of the community who have suffered and continue to suffer as a direct result of the council’s actions is continuingly ignored.
• The imposition of these planters has evidently created and encouraged division in a previously harmonious community.

There are approximately 800 households/businesses in immediate area of which the declaration was that “311 responses were received with a total of 222 expressing a desire for action to be taken” (no confirmation that the 222 agreed to the LTN scheme as it stands) and noting they couldn’t respond to individual concerns raised, also that there was no time to carry out any further consultation due to the deadline for funding applications. Any opposition correspondence sent to the council after receipt of this letter were again ignored. A copy of the outcome letter will be posted in the petition updates section for viewing.

Traffic counters were installed for a short period and have now been reinstated on Norwood Road and Cromwell Road with a new one positioned on Kenwood Road after a large amount of complaints were received, . Both sets of data will have been taken during a local or national lockdown meaning the data still will never be a true and accurate measurement, this cannot be faithfully done until we are clear of the pandemic and daily life returns to as normal as possible.

The community feels that Trafford Council has abused the current pandemic situation and the funding made available (specifically to assist in response to the pandemic) in order to impose this LTN scheme.

Since the imposition of these planters, all roads has experienced a high increase in traffic as residents are now forced to take alternative routes, the small amount of traffic that previously passed through, still continues to do so via an alternative route. Speeding vehicles has increased with the smaller and narrower roads taking the brunt of these diversions making junctions and roads unsafe. Bin wagons/Service providers and emergency vehicles have struggled to pass through, some now having to reverse down narrow streets.

The community now collectively has grave concerns regarding the safety/wellbeing of the residents and response/access times for the emergency services as every second counts in an emergency!

Traffic will positively get worse when the pandemic is over and daily life resumes. We have to take into account that we are live in close proximity to Manchester United FC (capacity approx 74000) and Lancashire County Cricket Ground (capacity 25000 on cricket matches and 50000 on concerts) that cause the area as a whole to become gridlocked on top of normal rush hour traffic, this is further hindered by the introduction of cycle pop up lanes that has cut some main roads down to one lane creating bottlenecks, tailbacks and increasing emissions to our area.

Trafford Council and the ward councillors has failed to listen to the urgent concerns of the residents and local businesses, they have also failed to take into account the impact of the current/previous lockdowns. Trafford Council needs to remove the LTN completely as soon as possible. We recommend the council revisits the consultation process in full to explore less intrusive options should it be agreed intervention is required, this time with all stakeholders participating and ensuring full transparency.

We have the right to live freely in our community but only if we force Trafford to listen to us. We need as many signatures as possible to make this happen!

Please sign this petition and share with your family/friends/local businesses and service providers

Details and maps from the Trafford Council website can be seen online via the following link:

Trafford Council - Emergency Active Travel Fund