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Tower Hamlets Council and the borough’s mayor Lutfur Rahman is heading for a High Court battle this week over plans to axe Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) schemes in the east London area.
In 2020 and 2021, several LTNs were set up in Tower Hamlets, creating pocket parks and cycle lanes across the borough. Rahman was then elected in 2022 on a manifesto saying he would get rid of LTNs, and in September 2023 he announced that three LTN schemes would be dismantled in Bethnal Green at Columbia Road, Arnold Circus and Old Bethnal Green Road.
Despite Mr Rahman being elected on a pro-motorist campaign, not everybody was happy about getting rid of the LTNs. In fact, one poll reckoned that 57 percent of residents wanted to keep the LTNs, saying they made the roads safer and the air cleaner in the neighbourhoods, and official borough stats say that 34 percent of Tower Hamlets households own a car.
Campaign group Save Our Safe Streets (SOSS) has launched a campaign challenging the dismantling of Tower Hamlet’s LTNs – and this week it all comes to the fore. Funded by over £78,000 of public donations, SOSS is taking Rahman and the council to the High Court over plans to rip up the schemes and return cars to Tower Hamlets’ streets.
Lawyers for SOSS will argue the case against Rahman on several grounds, including that the mayor ignored government guidance on LTNs and ran a ‘flawed’ consultation. Today and tomorrow (November 20-21) the council’s LTN decision is being examined by a judicial review in the High Court.
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