THE WAR ON CARS AND THE IMPACT ON THE VULNERABLE

Selina Seesunkur November 3, 2021

By James Hockney

The Mayor’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expansion and his support for the implementation of the Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTN) initiative, indicate that he is targeting car users. While Labour like to portray themselves as defenders of the most vulnerable, time and again the opposite could be said.

We can already see the impact that the ULEZ policy, the expansion of which comes into force on October 25th, will have on residents in our community.

For those in a non-compliant, older vehicle, they will need to pay £12.50 each day they need to cross over the A406 to go to our local hospital, North Middlesex. This is also before you take other costs into consideration, because for many, Enfield’s LTNs have increased their journey time to the hospital. It is the most vulnerable that are likely to be making regular trips there too, so £12.50 each day will soon start to mount up.

There is a grace period available for those with a vehicle registered with a disabled tax class or a disabled passenger vehicles tax class, but these exemptions will only apply until 2025, and no further support is being offered to help those owners find alternative transport.

Concerns have also been raised that the limited exemptions mean that many disabled people, and their associated carers and others, will be forced to pay the £12.50-per-day charge. For many people with a disability, getting on a bus is not an option, and this is where Mayor Khan has fundamentally misunderstood the consequences of his policy to expand the ULEZ.

To make matters worse though, both policies will impact the most vulnerable in society, and will actually do very little to tackle climate change. In fact, the LTNs in Enfield will- in all likelihood- make the situation worse.

Transport for All’s Pave The Way report from the start of this year, which examined the impact of all Low Traffic Neighbourhood Schemes on disabled people, is very significant for example. It highlighted that 72% of participants reported issues with how changes have been communicated, with 77% of participants reporting an increase in journey times. The group also identified a common theme of disabled people feeling a great sense of injustice and unfairness at LTN measures, because there is such a distinct lack of alternative options for transport. One respondent even asked why it should take them 20 minutes longer than everyone else because they could not use a bike.

Overall, Enfield Council’s implementation of the Low Traffic Neighbourhoods schemes is being felt by all corners of our community. In our recent, successful, by-election campaign in my ward of Bush Hill Park, it was one of the three issues we focused on, because it was constantly being mentioned on the doorstep.

We can also look at the impact on the local economy. While it may take time for any widespread challenges to filter through, we are already seeing instances of businesses losing clients because of the impact on local traffic, and other businesses who have decided not to locate in the vicinity of the LTNs because of their potential impact.

In Enfield, another significant impact will be on those businesses whose employees cross the A406, because they will be charged each day they make that journey.

When you think of small businesses carrying out deliveries, self-employed contractors and others for example, they are being faced with a decision between the daily charge, or an additional (likely expensive) cost to ensure they have a compliant vehicle.

It seems that Mayor Khan has buried his head in the sand over the impact of his ULEZ expansion. Transport for London had to suspend their scrappage schemes last summer due to high demand, but earlier this year the GLA Conservatives identified a plan to provide an additional £50 million of funding to reopen the schemes. It was estimated that the plan could have helped scrap more than 7,000 vehicles, and could have gone some way to supporting those who will be affected greatly by the expansion- the most vulnerable. This was, however, ignored by the Mayor.

Mayor Khan and Enfield Council should be taking an active interest in encouraging a switch towards more environmentally-friendly transport. In my own ward of Bush Hill Park, we currently have no electric charging points. Expanding the provision of electric charging points, both in my ward, across Enfield, and across London, would represent more of a ‘carrot’ approach. In contrast, Enfield Council is currently using unpopular and divisive measures - and the people who are impacted are often those who have less of a voice

Cllr James Hockney represents Bush Hill Park Ward on Enfield Council, and is an Executive Member of the Conservative Disability Group

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Cyclists are labelled as a ‘nuisance’, ‘entitled’ and ‘self righteous’ and motorists are ‘aggressive’ and ‘inconsiderate’. This language is unhelpful at best, and downright tribal at worst. Last week I saw a post by a cyclist boasting about going through a red light while being tailed by the police. It’s this very attitude that isn’t helping. In the same week I witnessed a motorist, red with rage shouting expletives at a cyclist who was barely coping with the demands of Hyde Park roundabout. On the face of it, these two groups are sworn enemies, but is there any room for conciliation?

Data from earlier this year shows cycling has increased by more than 35% in London. Once traffic goes back to normal levels will the ‘35%’ find they are met with hostility from other returning road users? According to TFL nearly two-thirds of the traffic on the city’s roads are buses, taxis, tradespeople and delivery drivers. These are driven by people who have largely been working throughout the pandemic, delivering our parcels and getting us where we needed to be this last year. Similarly, the boom in takeaways and online shopping has meant there are more and more key worker cyclists on London’s roads. Speaking with XeroE, an eco-courier start-up, they calculated their fleet of cyclists has quadrupled in the last year.

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Selina Seesunkur November 4, 2020

By Ian Kelly

If there’s one industry which has weathered the coronavirus crisis, it would be the railways. Far from weakening them, COVID-19 has strengthened Britain’s railways and proved just how important they are – not just to our daily lives but also to our resilience as a country. Yet we seem to have fallen out of favour with railways, so the pandemic offers us a great opportunity to re-imagine our relationship with them, at both a local and national level.

Let’s first address the current climate of opinion. As the pandemic took hold, many of us suddenly became terrified at the thought of using public transport, preferring instead to work from home using remote means of communication such as video calls and messaging services to stay in touch with our colleagues. This practice also extended into our social lives. The idea of meeting up at the pub or at a restaurant with friends or family was replaced by multi-person Zoom calls, and soon it became impossible to ignore our social media feeds filling up with screenshots framing this new pastime.

This new lifestyle has now morphed into a pervasive attitude of hostility towards public transport, with many questioning the need for railways at all. They claim that, with video conferencing now the backbone for hundreds of thousands of businesses up and down the country, there’s no point in taking the train, let alone building new ones.

This fundamentally misses the point of what railways are for. Britain’s railways are the backbone of our economy, enabling millions of people to reach work and school, as well as moving millions of tonnes of freight not just domestically but also to and from Europe. They keep us connected to our friends and loved ones; a function needed now more than ever. They bring communities together and promote a strong sense of stability and security for the people they serve. From young people to the elderly, railways remain a lifeline and fulfil the need for personal freedom and exploration.

Britain’s railways have also been essential in our national response to COVID-19. They’ve enabled key workers to continue their jobs day and night, facilitating the delivery of life-saving equipment, and allowing businesses to restart after the period of national lockdown earlier this year. As industry after industry shut down in late March, the national railway network and London’s transport network remained open, keeping essential businesses running and hundreds of thousands of people employed.

We must now channel this recognition and spirit of unity into our future relationship with railways. The Government has made a good start with the Restoring Your Railway Fund, which allows local authorities and community groups to bid for financial packages aimed at reinstating mothballed lines. The first successful bids were announced in early September. With further rounds of funding available next year, it is hoped that this scheme will revitalise investment from the private sector in local railway projects, and in turn help deliver the grand plan of ‘levelling up’ the national economy.

Our transport network, with railways as the centrepiece, will also be key to a successful Brexit. Railways are the perfect showcase for British ingenuity and skill, from engineering and design to data management and alternative technologies, all of which make the UK an attractive place to invest in as we forge new alliances and partnerships around the world. Railways also represent a key element in achieving our Net-Zero emissions target by 2050, most notably through growing interest in hydrogen technology as well as the introduction of tri-mode trains with Great Western Railway next year.

Railways represent a key part of our economy, society and national identity. We invented them and championed them, grew rich off them, went into war with them and now celebrate them in the form of heritage lines scattered across the land. It is ridiculous to think that we can somehow abandon railways as one would abandon their car in favour of walking everywhere. We need to recognise not only how much our railways contribute to today’s Britain, but how much potential they offer for future growth and prosperity at both a national level and local level.

It’s time to fall back in love with our railways.