‘Now is the time to finish off the job in Barnsbury just as it was finished in St Peter’s back in 2020’

• IN his wide-ranging October 20 letter, Nick Mason makes a number of far-fetched suggestions about possible impacts of the Barnsbury-Laycock LN, liveable neighbourhood, (This traffic scheme is illegal, inconsiderate and dangerous).

Traffic management schemes such as that proposed for Barnsbury have been implemented for decades, and they have been almost invariably successful and popular once in place.

Two local examples, which were installed in the 1970s, cover De Beauvoir Town and the streets to the south east of Finsbury Park; I cannot imagine that any locals would now want through-traffic to return to these areas.

Paul Dale (Prepare for tailbacks) stated “…the age profile of Barnsbury is mainly us older lot”. This is simply incorrect: the 2021 census shows that two-thirds of Barnsbury residents are under the age of 45.

And even if it were true, it does not follow that older people who, according to Transport for London data, are significantly less likely to own cars than those in middle age, and most of whom cannot afford frequent taxis, are disadvantaged by traffic reduction measures.

Research has shown that people on lower traffic streets are much more likely to know their neighbours, reducing the risk of social isolation which some older people suffer. And low-traffic roads are clearly better for people who might need a bit more time to cross.

Mr Dale is also concerned about cycling being a transport mode largely restricted to the young, fit and child-free; if this is a serious worry, he should welcome proposals to install easy-to-use secure bike hangars and implement lower-traffic streets, which are much more inclusive and welcoming places for potentially-slower older cyclists, parents with children, and people with disabilities who might use adapted bikes/trikes.

In his letter (Who will benefit from this?) Paul Lasok dismisses my citation of the successful St Peter’s PFS, people-friendly streets, scheme on the basis that Barnsbury is not an identical area and impacts of the scheme may be different.

Of course, no two areas of our borough are the same in every way; but if that were the bar for drawing a comparison it would be impossible to meet it.

Broadly speaking, the two areas have similar geographical characteristics and similarly had partial low-traffic schemes implemented decades ago – from which generally the more upmarket parts, such as the garden squares, benefited.

Now is the time to finish off the job in Barnsbury just as it was finished in St Peter’s back in 2020. There may be some points to improve about the proposals; some want assurances that more will be done to improve Liverpool Road, for example, but the council’s two-stage consultation process provides an excellent opportunity to raise these issues.

ANDREW HUGHES, N1