• I VERY much welcome the shelving of a Dartmouth Park road blockage scheme that proposed to force all local and through-travel to detour via a few already busy “boundary” roads for the purpose of causing maximum gridlock there.

Gridlocked roads would have shifted London centre-bound traffic on to neighbouring areas.

A great incentive for involved councils would have been the cash made from fines.

Residents were told “frankly, you should not be using your car anyway, that’s the point”.

The scheme would have forced all northbound and southbound travel onto the already busy Highgate West Hill, Highgate Road, Fortess Road, Junction Road and Highgate Hill, while blocking off mildly busy Dartmouth Park Hill and Swains Lane. Both of the latter roads have, in their northern sections, very limited numbers of residents as they border Waterlow Park, quite in contrast to the densely populated boundary roads.

Eastbound travel would have been forced to detour via Kentish Town or Highgate village. Access to the Whittington hospital was going to be blocked from south and west.

I must remind the councils and cycling campaigner activists that while some people might be able and happy to cycle or walk, elderly or disabled people and families will struggle and despair, not only on steep hills. Campaigners, please consider that even you rely on vehicular transport for those who deliver your new washing machine or parcel, who repair your boiler, or transport your daily crust to your favourite retailer or to your doorstep.

They all would have got stuck in traffic.

As road blockages and CCTV surveillance go hand in hand, the scheme would have brought 24/7 surveillance into our residential roads. Privacy was never a consideration.

Dartmouth Park is an area with quiet, peaceful, and green spaces and streets with widened pavements. Roads like Dartmouth Park Road have been made culs-de-sac (displacing much of the traffic to Chetwynd Road).

In reality Dartmouth Park is far from the gritty and dangerously polluted place as portrayed by some. The scheme was a solution looking for a problem. These types of schemes are pitting areas, and even neighbours, against each other to the detriment of all.

They are top-down directives (from mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and his C40 Cities network) totally at odds with the original purpose of the Highway Act which, in its wisdom, enabled safe and free passage on taxpayer-funded roads; crucial infrastructure for cities to thrive. These are our roads and people should be able to choose between all modes of transport.

Can councils please stop meddling in our lives and stick to bin collections, basic road maintenance, and the other core services that we pay them for?

KARIN RADICKE, N19