Boundary routes problem

• SOME recent letters to the Tribune have sought to allay the fears of Barnsbury & Laycock residents about the consequences of the proposed LN, liveable neighbourhood.

In particular it is claimed that past LTNs implemented in Islington and elsewhere show such schemes do not increase traffic on boundary roads.

But the council’s own data show that the largest LTN thus far implemented in Islington, the Highbury Fields PFS, people-friendly streets project, produced a 10 per cent average increase in traffic on all boundary roads, and a 47 per cent increase on the worst-affected.

The Barnsbury- Laycock LN will cover a larger and significantly more heavily-trafficked area than the Highbury Fields scheme.

With the closure of all internal routes save for Liverpool Road, where do supporters of the current proposals imagine all the displaced through traffic will go?

Much is already being asked of Liverpool Road. It is part of the London strategic cycle network, the site of a large academy with 1,400 pupils, the sole access for deliveries to the Business Design Centre and the main route for blue-light services seeking to avoid the congestion around Highbury Corner.

Now it is supposed to serve as the sole access for many of the new LN “cells” which will be created along its length.

It cannot be expected to do all these things successfully and sustainably, and provide safe and healthy homes for the 2,000-plus people who live there, while also acting as the Highbury Corner relief road.

This is why local residents are campaigning to persuade the council to develop options which will prevent its use by through-traffic which properly belongs on the A-road network.

JAMES PENNY, N7