‘Main roads continue to experience high levels of gridlock and congestion at various times’

• IN a March 1 letter K Fallon praises the council for their LN, liveable neighbourhood, schemes the newest of which is Cally Road, (Friendly streets are back with the people).

This scheme does seem proportionate, positive, and the designs hopefully represent the wishes of residents. What is noticeable in this scheme is the absence of any measures to close roads, apart from one small filter.

K Fallon goes on to praise other LTN, low traffic neighbourhood, schemes in which draconian road closures or road filters have, not surprisingly, drastically reduced traffic.

What K Fallon omits to mention is that most traffic which formerly used these streets has now been displaced onto main roads.

He quotes a 4 per cent increase on boundary roads but this figure is not reliable because of the flawed process used by the council to measure traffic data.

Far more important is the experience of those of us who live in this area. Main roads (including Holloway Road, Essex Road, Upper Street, Blackstock Road, St Paul’s Road, Seven Sisters Road, Gaskin Street, Pentonville Road) continue to experience high levels of gridlock and congestion at various times. Liverpool Road is a recent addition to the list.

Longer bus journeys are now normal on these roads. This in turn affects pollution. Some recent figures showed, for example, increased pollution levels of 26 per cent on Upper Street, 20 per cent on Essex Road, 40 per cent on Gaskin Street and 45 per cent on Canonbury Lane/Square.

For more details of the disastrous effect which the council’s misguided LTN programme has had, especially on the most disadvantaged members of our community, please see Keep Islington Moving’s website at: www.keepislingtonmoving.com

So no more road filters/ closures in Islington. The council should take heed of Sadiq Khan’s comments to Lambeth Council about overturning an LTN in the area and think carefully about the economic and social impacts of its programme to date.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED, N1