Transport Secretary Stops Government Funding for New LTNs as They Set ‘People Against Each Other’

Graham Pristo is pictured standing next to LTN bollards in his area of Bath, England on Feb. 22, 2023. (Owen Evans/The Epoch Times)

The Transport Secretary has called for a review of low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) as they set “people against each other” and has urged local councils to scrap existing unpopular versions of the scheme.

In an interview with The Telegraph on Sunday, Conservative MP Mark Harper said he has put an end to central government funding for LTNs.

Schemes that emerge from such 15-minute city/net zero ideologies, include LTNs—which use barriers, bollards, road signs, and planters to restrict car movements—as well as Residents’ Parking Zones (RPZs), which require a digital permit to park a car in specific areas.

Many towns have signed up to a global network of mayors “taking urgent action to confront the climate crisis,” called C40 Cities.

The UK has legally binding targets of reaching net zero by 2050, including British government plans on radically reducing carbon emissions by 2030 by phasing out petrol and diesel cars, gas boilers, and by changing people’s diets—while using behavioural science to achieve this end.

Conservative MP Mark Harper speaks during the launch of his Conservative Party leadership campaign, in London on June 11, 2019. (Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images)

Unpopular

After ending central government funding of the measures, Mr. Harper said that local authorities “should now consider scrapping existing LTNs where unpopular & implemented with insufficient consultation.”

He also warned that they have set “people against each other,” risk pushing voters against net zero, and that he supports the 2030 ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars.

Addressing LTNs, Mr. Harper said: “A number of them were implemented during the pandemic and there was, because of that, a lack of consultation. So I certainly think local authorities ought to reflect on whether the schemes that they implemented actually do have public support in their areas.

“Ultimately, it’s not the government’s job to micromanage every single local area—that’s for local authorities to decide.

“For local authorities who have got schemes that weren’t popular, were very controversial, and aren’t very well supported, then it would probably be wise for them to look at them again.”

Hugh Bladon, co-founder of Alliance of British Drivers told The Epoch Times that such schemes “cannot go on.”

“Motorists are being treated poorly when you consider that they provide over 30 billion pounds in taxes to the Exchequer,” he said.

“We prop up the train service with taxes, a third of what we pay in taxes is spent on the roads, the whole thing is skewed,” said Mr. Bladon.

He added that people are starting to realise that things “cannot go on.”

The Together Declaration, co-founded by Alan Miller, was formed in 2021 in response to COVID measures with the mission to “push back against the rapidly growing infringements on our rights and freedoms.

The group has focused on efforts to challenge Sadiq Khan’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), a air pollution-cutting scheme that charges motorists by the day to drive, and has set up a major cross party Stop ULEZ Coalition.

In reponse to Harper, Miller wrote on Twitter that: “Our campaigning and lobbying works. No more funding Livable Streets/Active Travel to Local Authorities due to your efforts together!”

LTNS

The Oxfordshire County Council, which includes the city of Oxford, in November 2022 approved a trial of “traffic filters” in efforts to reduce congestion and cut air pollution in the city.

Supporters say that these schemes create quieter roads that feel safer and encourage residents to walk, cycle, play and meet in a healthier and more inviting environment.

Those with climate and/or climate change concerns welcome filtering roads using planters, bollards or cameras, by banning turns, or by making some roads no entry or exit, giving priority and access to residents who live in the area

However such measures have attracted large protests. Critics have called them “a climate lockdown by default.”

From 2024, six traffic filters will be imposed on some main roads around Oxford, restricting private car drivers’ access between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. and imposing fines for violations.

While all parts of the county will still remain accessible by car, drivers of private cars would need to obtain permits that are valid for 100 days a year to travel through the filters.

In addition to traffic filters, Oxford imposed three LTNs in 2022 and will impose another six LTNs to blanket the city in 2024. Bollards have been reported erected on some roads to discourage driving.

Last Nov. Graham Pristo, who stood as a Tory councillor in Bath’s April local elections highlighting LTN barricades in his area told The Epoch Times that the rollout of the measures “pitted neighbour against neighbour.”

“They desperately do not want people to have the freedom to drive their cars in the way we previously have done,” he said.

Mr. Pristo said he believed the council’s aims “may be good and idealistic,” but that what the town wants has to be “done from a position of strength,” suggesting that businesses and families have already been impacted negatively by COVID lockdowns and the state of the economy.