Low traffic neighbourhood consultation for Kings Heath and Moseley

low-traffic-neighbourhood-consultation-kings-heath-moseley

Rhi Storer - Local Democracy Reporter | Wednesday 21st September 2022 12:13pm

In a packed community centre in Kings Heath, a woman puts her hand up to speak. “I’m 90. There’s no way I can carry my shopping. I’ve got to use the car”.

Another woman says the famously dreary British weather means commuters have little choice. “It’s all very well telling us to get on our bikes, but let’s be realistic. Would you if it was pouring with rain?”

The reason for the rancorous nature of the debate is road closures, implemented under temporary and emergency traffic orders to create low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTN). These were designed to encourage travel by bike or foot instead of public transport during the lockdowns. 

New engagement events opened this week in Kings Heath and adjacent Moseley on LTNs. Different roads and sections of each suburb occupy a month’s worth of engagement events by Birmingham city council.

Measures such as contraflow cycling and one-way streets have been proposed, but nothing has been finalised yet.

The LTNs in Kings Heath and Moseley feed into the council’s wider transport plans. Branded ‘People for Places’, the council recognised the majority of the city’s traffic congestion was found to have been caused by an excess of short car journeys, with a quarter of car journeys calculated at one mile or less.

The Birmingham transport plan of 2020 was influenced by Ghent’s zone-centred traffic circulation plan of 2017, and the council believes the city must act now to tackle costly congestion and the climate emergency.

David Barker, a Labour councillor for Brandwood and Kings Heath, said most people understood the engagement events to be about how to make the LTNs work as well as possible for local residents.

The first LTN in Kings Heath – York Road – was made permanent in April.

It has had mixed reaction from people in Kings Heath, with some praising its calming measures for children to safely walk to school. Others said it has created an increase in idling traffic and forced businesses to move elsewhere.

Tensions over Kings Heath’s LTN schemes led to protests last year after businesses suffered decreased footfall and car-reliant elderly and disabled residents were cut off from care. Many, like Mark Hudson, were sceptical of how LTN were implemented in the first place.

“I initially got involved in campaigning against them as I didn’t really know what they were about. I wasn’t even pro-LTN or anti-LTN,” he said. “All I was aware about is the LTN’s causing a lot of angst in the community through messages on local Facebook groups.”

Mr Hudson, an anti-LTN campaigner in Kings Heath, stood as an independent candidate for the same council ward in this year’s local elections. Many had anticipated they would be equal to a referendum on the use of LTNs. 

Mr Hudson had previously worked for 23 years at the Department for Transport and has advocated for cycling infrastructure there. “I was a bit of a spy in the camp. I had to beat the drum for the cycling division.

“The problem with LTNs here in Kings Heath is that the road infrastructure isn’t modern to begin with, and the main Alcester Road is a strategic route into the city. We shouldn’t close the roads themselves, but introduce traffic calming measures.”

Mr Hudson is cynical about LTN and their purpose. “As far as the council are concerned, it’s free money for them. It keeps them in a job.

“The council need to be seen to be delivering this, otherwise, the Department of Transport will turn around and suggest because they did not achieve success with the last lot of funds given to them – and they haven’t delivered value for money – they will pull good money out of LTN projects.”

But those promising to scrap the schemes for the most part failed to win seats. Mr Hudson secured only 485 votes, with the green candidate securing three votes more.

It’s the same pattern in other big cities such as London, where Clair Battaglino, a former primary school teacher who ran as an anti-LTN candidate in Hackney Central, secured only 214 votes. She had previously stood in London’s mayoral elections.

Councils, on the back of pro-LTN candidates, may be emboldened to roll out further low-traffic schemes. Councillors are ten times more likely to live in LTNs than on congested boundary roads, according to The Times, potentially raising several conflict of interests if LTN schemes continue to be rolled out across Birmingham.

Birmingham city council has already made a start on reducing car use from a share of the  £225 million Government’s Emergency Active Travel Fund (EATF) to create pop up and permanent cycle lanes and reallocate road space. Now with a second tranche of funding – a share of £200 million – the council wants to go further with expanded LTNs – including Kings Heath.

More News Headlines