Islington Council has postponed plans to introduce Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTN) in Bunhill “for the foreseeable future,” councillors Phil Graham and Troy Gallagher confirmed last week.
Residents were invited to a Zoom meeting on 22 October to hear about People-Friendly Streets, following growing concerns over signage problems and roadworks at the Old Street roundabout.
LTN, a form of People-Friendly Streets, use traffic filters such as bollards to make it harder to drive from one main road to the next.
They aim to make walking and cycling easier, reduce traffic casualties and improve air quality.
One resident asked why plans for LTN in Bunhill were being delayed, given it had the highest air pollution levels in the borough, which councillor Graham had also acknowledged as “extremely serious”.
Both Bunhill councillors said that although they are in favour of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, they do not plan to implement Low Traffic Neighbourhoods at the moment.
Councillor Graham said: “We have enough going on with the building work with the Old Street roundabout.
“There is no planned Low Traffic Neighbourhood stuff happening in Bunhill for the foreseeable future.”
Islington Council’s Executive Member for Environment and Transport councillor Rowena Champion said LTN are a borough-wide programme but “some are easier to implement than others”.
Other Islington wards such as Canonbury East, Clerkenwell Green and St Peter’s have already delivered LTNs this year.
Alan Lofts, a Project Manager at Transport for London, said the revised completion of the Old Street roundabout was autumn 2022.
He said that development works on the Old Street roundabout meant that traffic was being diverted to places such as Bath Street.
But Tfl said that People-Friendly Streets are “very closely aligned to the Old Street” in that they encourage cycling and walking.
