Forum topic: Anti-LTN campaigners march through PG

The Enfield Dispatch website has a report by editor James Cracknell on Saturday's well attended anti-Fox Lane LTN march, which was organised by the group One Community Against Fox Lane LTN, one of a number of similarly named campaigns against low-traffic neighbourhoods in various parts of London and the wider UK.

After listening to speeches on the sports field in Broomfield Park, the demonstrators marched along Aldermans Hill and Green Lanes. The Dispatch reports that there were "several hundred" participants - a count of people shown in the video footage above suggests a total of between 500 and 550, but there may have been more people out of sight.

The size of the well organised and well behaved march shows what was already clear - that there is substantial opposition to the Fox Lane scheme, though it proves nothing about the overall balance of opinion among residents or about whether on balance the effects of the LTN are beneficial or harmful. It's also clear from the speeches and the interview in the Dispatch with Cllr Maria Alexandrou that there is a widespread view that Enfield Council is not listening to people's complaints about the LTN. Instead of just saying that all comments will be taken into account when decisions are taken, the council would do well to be more ready to acknowledge before then that many people are unhappy about the scheme and that some people are genuinely inconvenienced, and to engage more readily about potential ways of mitigating problems.

Cllr Alexandrou's interview comments also highlight another problem - that opponents of LTNs have so far not suggested any alternative solutions to the root cause of congestion on Enfield's, and London's, roads - namely, the fact that the sheer volume of traffic, exacerbated by larger vehicle sizes, long ago outstripped the capacity of the road system, as clearly evidenced by the amount of congestion occurring on roads that are nowhere near an LTN or was already occurring before anyone had heard this particular three-letter acronym:

"Asked what measures she would propose to reduce traffic instead of LTNs, Cllr Alexandrou said she wanted to see more rain gardens, wider pavements, more pedestrian crossings and charging points for electric vehicles."

Those are all positive suggestions that would improve conditions for people on foot, but it's hard to see how they would reduce traffic to any significant extent.

If you would like to comment on the Fox Lane LTN, please bear in mind that there is an existing forum discussion, so please use that, unless you want to comment on the march or on the points raised in theEnfield Dispatch report, in which case please use the comment function below.