HIGHBURY LOW TRAFFIC NEIGHBOURHOODS (LTN)
A NEW LTN IS COMING TO HIGHBURY EAST
Keep Highbury Moving is a diverse collection of Highbury people, many of whom were born in or have lived in Highbury for many decades. We include parents and carers for the elderly and disabled, local Highbury business people and ordinary families.
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We support reducing traffic that cuts across Highbury, but we object to the way that this has been done through Islington Council undemocratically imposing sweeping LTNs, and we are deeply concerned about some of the negative impacts that LTNs continues to have on the Highbury community.
We have come together as a group because of these shared concerns, and to work together to get these concerns to and addressed by the Council.
OUR LATEST NEWS
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Highbury New Park Liveable Neighbourhood will include Riversdale and Mountgrove.
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Not clear if Petherton will be affected.
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All roads to be blocked between Green Lanes/Stokey & Highbury Grove/Blackstock
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Only East-West access via St Pauls and Brownswood Roads
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A new left turn to be created at Highbury Grove and St Pauls junction
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Major bus and traffic delays
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Consultation 2026, implementation 2027
MORE PRESSURE ON BOUNDARY ROADS
SLOWER BUSES
MORE INDEPENDENT BUSINESSES SUFFERING
If you want to go east, you will have to turn left here, somehow. Hard for car, imagine a 25 ft truck.
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Already jams in rush hour - soon could jam up to Highbury Barn every day
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Much more traffic from Highbury Grove when Grosvenor Avenue closed. Everything going east will hold up other traffic
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St Pauls traffic towards Highbury Corner will be held up by those turning right into Highbury Grove
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Buses 4, 19 & 30 will be badly delayed
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We need to know TFL’s estimate of impact
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Maybe Council will buy garden of Alwyne Castle – how much will this cost?
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Brought to you with all the skills that gave us Highbury Corner
Brownswood crossing Green Lanes
Green Lanes crossing Brownswood & Lordship
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Traffic turning right at a crossroads will generally only allow
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2-3 at a time at each change of lights
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If there is only a single lane, too many cars turning right will block all traffic
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When through routes via Mountgrove, Riverdale and Highbury Quadrant/New Park are blocked, many more vehicles will need to use Brownwood and then turn right, blocking all, including 106 bus
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The same problem will occur in Green Lanes going south – a major road – as traffic turning into Riversdale will be blocked and Highbury New Park will no longer allow through traffic. Extra delays for 141 & 341 buses
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Result – long jams at rush hour, increased pollution
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“Cleaner, greener, healthier streets” meaning:
New green spaces & tree planting - great, but don’t need traffic controls -
Reduced pollution from vehicles:
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The Council admit that commercial heating and cooking are actually the worst polluters and vehicle pollution is already improving from ULEZ and vehicle standards
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The zone will move any pollution from clean areas to hotspots
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Inside zone pollution will go from very low to negligible
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Blackstock, Highbury Grove, St Pauls & Brownswood will go from bad to terrible.
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Safety improvements – is there a problem inside the zone? What are the statistics?
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Boundary roads will be busier and less safe
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Major rush hour delays to all traffic on important through roads
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Key bus routes are impacted, unlike other LTNs
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Serious consequences for businesses:
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Shop deliveries and customers impacted
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Home delivery and maintenance services
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Kelvin Road business estate access
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Wider public will lose from:
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poorer bus services,
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more difficult and expensive taxi access
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Car users will be penalised, with little offsetting gains elsewhere
We can be pretty sure the Labour Council will avoid talking about this new LTN before the election and provide little detail.
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They will claim plans not made, but they have working on them for four years
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WE NEED TO KNOW THE PLANS BEFORE THE ELECTION
​Three parties have represented Highbury in recent years:
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Labour are promoting this LTN
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Greens are not giving an opinion without detailed plans, but they know the objectives
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If they don’t make their position clear, it can be assumed they support the LTN, in line with general Green policy
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Liberal Democrats do not yet have a formal position, but senior members have expressed real concern about the plans.
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Make sure the candidates know your concerns – make your vote count
WE NEED A PROPER DISCUSSION AT A WARD MEETING BEFORE THE ELECTION
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HACKNEY RESIDENTS NEAR BROWNSWOOD WILL BE AFFECTED – CONTACT YOUR COUNCILLORS
Whoever wins the election should be willing to support a proper consultation process. Past experience is not good:
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Plans have never been shown at the same time as the consultation, so it is very difficult to understand the impact. The claim that plans will be made as a result of the consultation is false, although small changes are occasionally made. The Council has been working on this for at least four years.
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Questionnaires have been designed to give support to the LTN proposal
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Examples – “Do you want less traffic/pollution/more green spaces etc?” – Who doesn’t?
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You don’t see – “Do you think extra pollution/traffic/slower buses in Blackstock is acceptable given other advantages?
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People are asked to put on a map points of concern about pollution, safety etc, but it is not easy to make objections in the survey, particularly when there are no specific proposals.
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We never see in advance estimates of the impact on traffic and especially TFL’s report on bus services.​
WE NEED A DRAFT PLAN, IMPACT ASSESMENT AND FAIR QUESTIONNAIRES AS PART OF THE CONSULTATION
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“We have committed to delivering liveable neighbourhoods across the borough to create cleaner, greener and healthier streets. It is our intention to develop plans for a liveable neighbourhood in the ‘Highbury New Park’ area between Highbury Barn, Brownswood Road, Green Lanes and St Paul’s Road. This area includes Riversdale Road.
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In addition to developing public realm improvement measures such as street greening and better pavements and crossings, it is proposed that the liveable neighbourhood scheme will prevent through-traffic cutting through local streets in this area including Riversdale Road, while retaining vehicle access to all addresses.
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We will be engaging with local people in due course to gather their views on how we should improve the streets in the ‘Highbury New Park’ area. This will enable us to develop and consult on plans for a liveable neighbourhood scheme for the area.
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Our approach to liveable neighbourhoods is to introduce an area-wide scheme covering the local streets across a neighbourhood area. The rationale for delivering an area-wide scheme is to avoid introducing measures that would simply push traffic from one local street to the next, and instead to address the issue of through-traffic across the whole neighbourhood. The ‘Highbury New Park’ area is a large area and the project is expected to take time to develop.
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In order to develop a liveable neighbourhood scheme in the ‘Highbury New Park’ area, we believe we will also need to address an issue with existing banned turns which currently constrain vehicle movements at the junction of Highbury Grove and St Paul’s Road. These banned turns would prevent traffic from circulating around the area on the main road network if we implemented a liveable neighbourhood.
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We are currently testing the feasibility of redesigning the junction of Highbury Grove and St Paul’s Road. The aim of these design proposals is to improve traffic movement along St Paul’s Road and Highbury Grove in addition to making the junction safer for people walking and cycling. This is a complex project and it is expected to take time before we understand the feasibility of making changes to this junction. (Note added: this refers to the potentially very disruptive plan for a left turn from Highbury Grove into St Pauls Road and right turn from St Pauls into Highbury Grove)
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Please be assured that we will be engaging with people in the local area in due course to help us develop for plans for a liveable neighbourhood in the area...”
OTHER NEWS
They drag their feet on blue badge exemptions but not PCNs!
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Letter in the Islington Tribune
Wednesday, 8th March 2023
The LTN "winners"
and "losers" lottery
More LTN displaced traffic and pollution will be pushed out onto the borough’s main roads
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LET YOUR COUNCILLORS KNOW IF YOU HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY THE IMPOSITION OF LTN's
IN YOUR AREA. MAKE YOUR OPINION COUNT.
Email a copy to People Friendly Streets
Email your Councillors in HIGHBURY
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THERE IS STILL TIME TO HAVE YOUR SAY
AND IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO HAVE A VOICE
HAVE YOUR SAY​
If you live in HACKNEY near Brownswood and don’t want Islington’s pollution and congestion, write to:
GET IN TOUCH
Please also copy us in at keephighburymoving@gmail.com and we will collate objections, constructive comments, suggestions and keep residents informed.
