A meeting of Better Streets for Enfield at the Fox In Palmers Green will include a presentation by campaigners who have been resisting the removal of a low-traffic neighbourhood in Bethnal Green and Shoreditch.
The meeting at 7.30pm on Wednesday 23rd September at the Fox will begin with a short formal Annual General Meeting of Enfield Cycling Campaign (ECC) (a branch of the London Cycling Campaign). Only members of ECC will be entitled to vote.
There will then be a presentation by representatives of Save Our Safer Streets Bethnal Green on lessons learnt from their four year long campaign to prevent the Mayor of Tower Hamlets from removing a low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN) in Bethnal Green and Shoreditch. The Mayor has appealed to the Supreme Court in a bid to overturn an earlier court decision that ruled that he did not have the powers to remove the LTN.
The case is highly relevant to Enfield, since during the local elections campaign this spring Enfield Conservatives were openly hostile to LTNs. Now that they are running the council (though short of a majority of seats), they have announced a review of LTNs - and many residents fear that they will remove the Fox Lane and Bowes LTNs and open them up to the rat running traffic that blighted these areas before the LTNs were introduced in 2020.
There will also be opportunities to ask questions and discuss issues relating to walking and cycling routes and to measures to make the borough's streets safer and pleasanter for users - not just car drivers.
If you can't make the Fox, you can join the meeting on Zoom.
About Better Streets for Enfield
Better Streets for Enfield is a campaigning organisation that brings together the Enfield branch of Living Streets and Enfield Cycling Campaign. We campaign to make active travel - walkng, wheeling and cycling - easier, safer and pleasanter.
We want to see
Safe streets
with safe space to walk, cycle and cross on busy roads and quiet, low-traffic streets in neighbourhoods.
Healthy streets
where active travel is the natural choice for short journeys and air is clean enough for children to breathe.
People-friendly streets
with lots of plants and seating, and where motor traffic doesn’t dominate – especially on high streets.
To achieve safe, healthy and people-friendly streets we campaign for
- An end to high-traffic neighbourhoods
- A complete, coherent Borough-wide network of cycle lanes
- Pedestrian-friendly high streets to boost local business
- 20mph as the default speed limit
- Traffic-free streets around every school during school run hours
