‘Gridlocks will get even worse by the proposed scheme’

• I COMPLETELY agree with Denise Blackbourne (So just how will I leave Barnsbury?, October 13) that the planned LN, liveable neighbourhood, for Barnsbury/Laycock will cut Barnsbury essential traffic – deliveries, cabs, tradespeople – off from Upper Street and all points east.

The closure of all three roads linking Liverpool Road to Upper Street will mean huge tailbacks at the junction of Liverpool Road/Mackenzie Road with Holloway Road (a mile-long diversion) and will put even more pressure on Highbury Corner.

Any claims Islington Council make for a “greener” borough are made absurd to anyone who witnesses the gridlocks at Highbury Corner, from all directions, and these will get even worse by the proposed scheme.

Pity those sitting endlessly in buses. Pity the residents of Liverpool Road. Delivery services may have to soak it up, but tradespeople and cabs will be giving up on us residents.

The planned LN, with 15 road closures, is in any way disproportionate to what is already a very quiet area. Have any councillors actually walked through Barnsbury recently? We don’t have a traffic problem!

Residents will find it much harder to get cabs and tradespeople who are willing to sit in the Highbury Corner jams, to get to Liverpool Road, to then access the bulk of Barnsbury through the labyrinth of single access points.

Cycling will not get your family and luggage to the station or airport, or get your elderly mum to that hospital appointment, in the way an Uber will.

I haven’t met a single neighbour who wants this planned LN. Those supporting it on your Letters pages are often well-known cycling lobbyists/enthusiasts, but the age profile of Barnsbury is mainly us older lot, who sometimes need cabs. Or a plumber. Or an electrician.

Is the council only interested in the young, fit, child-free and mainly male, who carry their bikes into their offices after their commute through our neighbourhood, since they will be nicked if left on the street?

PAUL DALE , N1