A disabled MP has warned that the introduction of low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) across England has too often had a damaging impact on disabled people’s independence.
Labour’s Marsha de Cordova told a parliamentary debate this week that many disabled people have faced obstructions caused by bollards and planters, and blocked dropped kerbs, as well as much longer journeys.
Many local authorities have failed to exempt holders of blue parking badges from LTN schemes, she said.
The schemes are traffic-control measures that reduce motorised traffic in a particular area, with the aim of making active travel more comfortable and improving public spaces for pedestrians.
De Cordova (pictured) was leading a Westminster Hall debate on two parliamentary petitions that have raised concerns about the impact of LTNs.
One of them called for an independent review of their impact and the other called for disabled people with blue parking badges to be exempt from LTN fines.
A survey carried out by the Commons petitions committee found 86 per cent of disabled people who responded saying that LTNs had a “negative” or “very negative” impact on them.
De Cordova told MPs: “The accessibility issues around LTNs show that society is rarely designed with the needs and interests of disabled people in mind, and that often leads to their exclusion.”
She pointed to narrow cycle lanes that are designed for a two-wheel bike and cannot be used by trikes or other non-standard vehicles.
She said that LTNs “can work in certain areas if they are supported by the community”, and she suggested the government makes it compulsory for councils to consult disabled people’s groups before introducing an LTN.
The Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse said her local council in Bath had been “very brave in introducing a wide range of LTNs”, but she accepted that there were “legitimate concerns”, including those of disabled people.
She stressed the importance of “proper consultation, comprehensive exemptions and more accessible transport options”, as well as “dropped kerbs and no street clutter”.
She added: “LTNs have clear benefits: they improve air quality, increase the number of journeys made by walking and cycling, and show reductions in street crime.”
But Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg insisted that “however much we wish to pretend otherwise, we are a society, a nation and an economy based on the internal combustion engine”.
He said: “Do we really think that we should be telling people how to lead their lives?
“Should we tell them what is good for them and make them do it?”
He added: “The thing that has reduced pollution has been not LTNs, but improvements in the internal combustion engine and, most crucially, the move away from diesel engines.”
Simon Lightwood, Labour’s shadow local transport minister, said LTNs “play an important part in delivering safer streets and cleaner air and in helping encourage people to use active travel to get around”.
He said: “The government’s own review on low-traffic neighbourhoods has found that of the LTNs surveyed, 38 exempted blue badge-holders and 34 did not.
“It is clear that more can be done to ensure that LTNs consider the needs of those with limited mobility.
“Labour’s position on low-traffic neighbourhoods is clear: they are decisions that should continue to be made by local authorities, not be decided by diktat from Whitehall or Westminster.
“Of course, these decisions must be made with proper consultation, and the concerns of each community must be taken on board.”
Guy Opperman, a junior transport minister, said: “We have to accept that low-traffic neighbourhoods can work where they are well designed and where there is, crucially, local support for them.
“But they can also do harm where they are poorly thought through and introduced with insufficient public engagement and support.”
He said the review commissioned by the government – which has so far produced an interim report – “flagged particular concerns over the impact on disabled residents, the high number of penalty charge notices, the cost of the LTN schemes, and even concerns from individual emergency services that delays to crews caught up in LTNs could potentially risk lives”.
He added: “Many disabled residents, as well as groups representing the views of disabled transport users, felt that inadequate consideration had been given to their needs and the impacts of LTN schemes on disabled people.”
And he said that several local authorities had not carried out equality impact assessments on their schemes.
He said the government had addressed these issues through draft guidance, “which sets out clear expectations for comprehensive and in-depth local engagement and full consideration of the needs of all road users in such a scheme”.
He said: “Although it is guidance, we reserve the right to take further action if local authorities do not follow it.”
He also said it was not a “viable solution” for vehicles belonging to blue badge-holders to be automatically exempt from any restrictions and enforcement, as “blue badges are linked to the individual and not the vehicle”.
But he said the draft LTN guidance “makes it clear that local authorities should always consider exemption from restrictions for blue badge-holders, as well as for deliveries and other essential services”.
Responding to his comments, De Cordova was critical of the government’s review, which she said was “not exhaustive and did not include many key stakeholders, such as disabled people”.
And she said it was “a shame” that the government had offered “no solution to ensure that anybody who holds a blue badge is exempt from the schemes”.
She told MPs: “As we have said, low-traffic neighbourhood schemes can work if they are done properly, are led by evidence and are fully inclusive and accessible to us all.”
After the debate, Mike Spenser, the disabled campaigner and musician who started the petition calling for disabled people with blue parking badges to be exempt from LTN fines, said he was glad that “the elephant in the room has finally come out and be seen to be an issue that must be addressed”.
But he said he was not happy that key issues around the impact of LTNs on mental health and the need for local authorities to use the national DVLA database were not addressed thoroughly enough in the debate, and he said he will now be pushing for another debate on the issue.
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