Mayor Jason Perry and Croydon’s “LTNs”
On 23rd August 2022, Croydon’s newly elected Mayor Jason Perry announced that he is overseeing the implementation stage of the ANPR-controlled “LTNs” in South Norwood - https://news.croydon.gov.uk/improved-access-for-residents-as-croydon-healthy-neighbourhood-schemes-see-upgrades/
In the run up to the Mayoral Election on 5th May 2022, we interviewed all of the candidates specifically about their views on the "LTN" schemes in Crystal Palace and South Norwood. We put the same questions to all of them.
Here’s what Jason Perry had to say then.
1) As a candidate, what do you understand about the impact of the LTNs on residents and businesses, for example, have you spoken to people or experienced difficulties first hand?
As a local business owner and lifelong Croydon resident, I understand the frustrations and financial hardships that the LTN schemes have caused local residents and businesses across Croydon.
These LTN schemes have increased levels of traffic and congestion, increased journey times, increased pollution, impacted on business and fined residents for driving on their own roads.
Furthermore, the schemes have caused issues for the emergency services.
We are yet to be presented with any data to prove the success or failure of these schemes. I have spoken to numerous groups and residents across the borough on this very issue, including ‘Open our Roads’.
These schemes are having a huge detrimental impact on our communities.
2) Are you in favour of the LTNs (CHNs) in your area, most specifically the proposed ANPR schemes?
Mayoral candidates are asked to consider all schemes.
I am generally not in favour of LTNs, as they often fail to bring the environmental improvements that they are meant to. Instead, they force traffic onto main routes creating greater congestion, longer journeys, increased pollution and removing through traffic for many businesses.
However, I believe it is for the residents and businesses in those areas to be the ones whose opinions ultimately determine what happens. These schemes should not be enforced on communities but rather developed in partnership with them.
Any environmental schemes introduced by me, if I am Mayor of Croydon, will have evidenced based social and environmental benefits for residents and businesses, whilst not disproportionately impacting the poorest in our borough.
3) Do you agree that the LTNs should be removed until Croydon Council has established evidence of a location specific need for change through monitoring, in line with industry best practice?
I would like to remove all the LTNs on the first day after I become Mayor, in order to allow for proper data gathering and then conduct full and proper consultations. I would then re-introduce any scheme that has the backing of local residents and will achieve its stated purposes.
However, owing to how Labour has constructed their budget this is simply NOT possible. There is well over £20m of future income within the budget which would have to be replaced if this happened. This will take time to work through, to identify alternative sources of income and change the profiling of the borough’s budget.
To be clear, I do not want Croydon to be dependent on fining its residents to be able to balance the books but removing that dependency will take some time. I will do it but it won’t be on day one!
4) If a need for traffic calming measures is identified do you agree that a range of possible solutions, not limited to LTNs, that proportionately meet the need should be put forward for consideration by the community?
For too long the Council has introduced schemes like LTN’s across the borough without listening to the residents and businesses that they will impact. For every environmental scheme we need to look at all the available data and try and create schemes which the majority of the community would welcome.
We must look at all possible measures and solutions to deal with traffic calming and climate change. I commit to developing policies that will help achieve our target of being carbon neutral by 2030 through a community-led approach. Acting on climate change is not the remit of any one part of Croydon, it needs to be a collaborative approach where initiatives are genuinely co-created, not implemented from the top down.
5) Croydon Council disregarded the 62% of residents who rejected the ANPR proposal for the Auckland Rd LTN, the 70% who rejected the proposals for Holmesdale Road and the 72% who rejected the proposals for Albert Road. Do you think the results of consultations should be honoured as part of a democratic process and to take public opinion with you?
The majority of residents in Croydon, who took part in previous LTN consultations, were against any LTN scheme as you have mentioned. However, the Labour Council ignored this and pushed ahead and modified the schemes to make them enforceable with ANPR cameras. We all saw the result of the Council’s implementation of the Parsons Mead LTN, which led to huge protests as the local community, who could ill afford these charges, felt completely ignored.
Acting without listening is not a sustainable way to create change and drive modal shift.
Politicians must listen to public opinion, and act accordingly. This clearly has not happened under the current Labour Council. I have been ‘Listening to Croydon’ and will respond to our residents’ concerns.
6) Built into the design of the Auckland Road LTN, traffic was forced to divert through the narrow and winding streets in Bromley north on the borders of the Croydon LTN (Belvedere Road, Cintra Park, Patterson Road and Milestone Road). 99.3% of the residents of those streets who took part in the consultation wanted the LTN removed. What is your view on this?
This is another example of Croydon’s Labour Council pushing unpopular schemes on to the local community, despite mass opposition and negative consultation responses. ‘Open our Roads’ organised a very well attended, socially distanced, protest along Church Road, and yet local residents and businesses were once again ignored.
Croydon Council did not work collaboratively with Bromley Council on this matter and instead forced huge amounts of displacement traffic unnecessarily into a neighbouring borough’s roads, without a second thought for the residents that live there.
7) In light of Croydon’s bankruptcy and the fact these punitive schemes are intended to be revenue generating in times of a severe cost of living squeeze, what other alternatives would you propose to assist economic recovery in Croydon?
As we know the choices of the current Labour Council in Croydon have led to bankruptcy and the Council is now using road fines and charges as a means to support the budget. This is simply unfair and not sustainable. However, it will take time to identify alternative sources of income and re-profile the borough’s budget.
The Council budget needs to be radically transformed to put Croydon back on a sustainable basis. The squandered opportunity of schemes like Westfield has cost Croydon £millions. We need to get inward investment flowing back into our borough so that we are not fining our residents in order to balance the books.