Newham Council has announced a radical active and sustainable travel programme, backed by £51m capital investment until 2031, including an expansion of low traffic neighbourhoods (LTN) and a borough-wide 20mph limit.
Unlike other London boroughs, Newham is showing no signs of turning its back on traffic reduction policies, promising 'to continue our ambitious [LTN] programme to enable more local walking and cycling trips to be made, make roads quiet and safer and cut out rat-running'.
It also pledged to 're-visit existing [LTN] schemes - both recent and those introduced in the 80s and 90s - with new measures, such as improved roads and pavements, accessibility improvements, new trees and flower beds, cycle hangars and street play'.
Another major element of the capital programme, which has £5m allocated for 2023/24, is the introduction of a Borough-wide 20mph zone.
Cllr James Asser, cabinet member for environment and sustainable transport, said: 'We have agreed on the funding to start delivering the changes that will bring about these improvements to the borough. We are in a position to start bringing forward the plans now, and much of this work has already begun.
'This will continue to deliver quieter streets, and protect our children as they go in and out of school. This will make it easier for people to walk and cycle, reduce traffic speeds so our roads are safer, enforce the rules of the road to stop unsafe driving and make our roads and pavements safer for all, especially children.'
Other strategic plans in Newham's programme Newham:
- Moving Traffic Contraventions – to continue to work towards making our roads safer and contributing to the Mayor of London’s ‘Vision Zero’ plan to end deaths and serious injuries in road accidents. Together, we can eradicate deaths and serious injuries from our roads and make London a safer, healthier and greener place by tackling dangerous non-compliance at existing traffic restrictions and making these locations safer for all road users.
- Healthy School Streets – to continue making streets around schools safer at pick-up and drop-off times by restricting traffic outside the school gates with a further 10+ schemes to be delivered in 2023/24.
- Cycling Infrastructure – including improved cycle facilities on major routes (including Romford and Barking Roads) and an accelerated roll-out of residential bike hangars
- Traffic Management and Safety Schemes – to continue to work with residents on a programme of small traffic management, speed reduction and road safety measures identified by residents and ward councillors to address reported concerns.
- Street Play – to restart our support for community-led play street schemes and to routinely deliver formal and informal play elements in public realm schemes.
