‘At this level of spend the question has to be asked, ‘is it worth it?’

• A REVIEW of Islington Council’s budget shows that the initial cost of low traffic neighbourhoods, LTNs, is a hefty £5million, covering installation of CCTV cameras, bollards and signage.

But this is not the full cost. Under the banner of “people-friendly streets”, a further £4.95million will be spent over the next two years for “sweeping” environmental changes.

It includes, for example, planting and the creation of “parklets”, in what are now parking spaces, across all 16 wards.

That brings the total spend to very nearly £10million on what are supposedly temporary measures brought in without up-front consultation.

And no provision has been made to remove or redesign LTNs should residents follow other boroughs and reject the schemes after the extended 12-month “trial”. At this level of spend the question has to be asked, “is it worth it?”

To add perspective, £10million dwarfs the budget for maintaining our crumbling road network (£4.2million), it is about twice what the council has earmarked for Greenspace initiatives (about £5million) and vastly exceeds investment in libraries (£1.4million).

Not only that, it comes against a backdrop of an inflation-busting 5 per cent rise in council tax as Islington tries to plug a £25million hole in the budget.

Perhaps one factor driving the council to accelerate LTN roll-out is that if they can force them through, they will reap substantial extra revenue from penalty charge notices, PCNs, issued by the new network of “big brother” cameras.

Covid-19 meant that Islington’s income from parking was down by £10million last year, but early LTNs helped soften the blow.

The Tribune reported in January that nearly £500,000 in LTN fines were issued in a little over four months. This was before the Highbury road closures.

A new Freedom of Information request reveals that in these two new schemes, 1,263 PCNs were issued in January, netting the borough more than £115,000 in fines in just 21 days.

In fact the council is banking on fines from LTNs boosting its coffers by almost £2.5million per annum over the next few years. At the standard £65 rate, that is almost 38,000 more fines than they already issue every year.

Sadly I suspect most of the “victims” won’t be residents, but hard-working delivery drivers and tradespeople who are unfamiliar with the constantly changing road restrictions and confused by poor and misleading signage.

ALLAN CLAYTON
Highbury Park, N5