Issue - meetings
Deputations (if any)
Meeting: 16/10/2020 - Council (Item 4)
Deputations
To hear any deputations, agreed in accordance with Standing Order 32.
Additional documents:
Decision:
NOTED the following deputations received at the meeting:
· Joel Davidson, on behalf of the Brondesbury Park Residents Association objecting to the Local Traffic Neighbourhood proposals in their area.
· Mark Falcon, on behalf of Brent Cleaner Air Campaign highlighting their support for the principles and objectives behind Brent’s Active Travel Programme alongside the need for effective local engagement and monitoring.
· Charlie Fernandes, on behalf of the Brent Cycling Campaign highlighting their support for Health Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.
Minutes:
The Mayor advised that he had accepted requests for three deputations to be presented at the meeting on the subject of Healthy Neighbourhoods.
The first of these had been from Joel Davidson on behalf of the Brondesbury Park Residents Association. The second from Mark Falcon, speaking on behalf of Brent Clean Air Campaign and the third from Charlie Fernandes, speaking on behalf of the Brent Cycling Campaign.
The Mayor advised that unless otherwise indicated by Members, he intended to allow each of the nominated speakers up to five minutes to present their deputations. He would then allow Councillor Tatler, as Lead Member for Regeneration, Property and Planning up to five minutes to respond on the deputations received.
As no issues were raised on the approach outlined, the Mayor moved on to welcome Joel Davidson to the meeting and invited him to present the first deputation on behalf of the Brondesbury Park Residents Association. The following issues were highlighted as part of the deputation:
· The Brondesbury Park Residents Association felt that the Low Traffic Neighbourhood schemes were being pushed through undemocratically by the Council, with local people not having been consulted or engaged before implementation. The approach towards the concept of “retrospective consultation” was deemed unacceptable and unsatisfactory by local residents in the area;
· Concerns were also highlighted in relation to the design of the schemes based on what was felt to be “anecdotal data”, with schemes elsewhere across London also causing similar concern, for example in Ealing, Hackney and Islington. In Wandsworth and Redbridge, this had led to local authorities reversing decisions to implement the schemes;
· It was also felt the schemes would make traffic, and therefore air pollution, along main roads in the Brondesbury Park area, such as Kilburn High Road, Salisbury Road and Chamberlain Road worse, with a number of local schools also likely to be adversely affected by the increase in traffic;
· Highlighting that Brent had one of the largest percentage of daily trips by public transport and one of the lowest percentage of daily trips for motor vehicles in London, the Resident Association felt this weakened the case for introduction of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. Moreover, it was also felt there was a need to recognise that air pollution levels had reduced as a result of the pandemic. As such, the need for such measures was deemed questionable, especially as it was felt the use of road closures and barriers in local areas would not prompt residents to move to alternative modes of travel;
· Low Traffic Neighbourhoods were also felt to discriminate against those with mobility issues, the elderly and tradespeople, all of whom struggled to travel without the use of motor vehicles;
· Whilst highlighting that Resident Association remained keen to improve their local environment and were supportive of the efforts being made to encourage more active modes of transport such as walking and cycling, it was felt this could be achieved and coexist alongside motor vehicle use. The approach would, however, require a joined up approach ... view the full minutes text for item 4