Campaigners who are legally challenging the removal of a set of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) in Bethnal Green have been accused of interfering in democracy, as the High Court inquiry into the issue entered its second and final day.
In a written argument submitted to the court by a barrister representing Tower Hamlets Council, the judicial review brought by the campaigners was described as “an impermissible interference with democratic decision making”.
The campaign group, Save Our Safer Streets, argue that the decision by Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman in September 2023 to remove three LTNS - from Columbia Road, Arnold Circus, and Old Bethnal Green Road - did not follow the necessary legal processes.
All of the low traffic schemes in question have remained in place pending the outcome of the hearing.
Mr Rahman had promised, in the manifesto on which he was re-elected in 2022, to “reopen our roads, and abolish the failed Liveable Streets scheme, which has seen emergency services and vulnerable residents’ access blocked”.
One of the seven arguments made by the campaigners was that, despite the mayor’s manifesto, there was still a “failure to give adequate reasons” by Mr Rahman at the time of the decision being made in 2023.
He said at the time that he was removing the LTNs because they had a “divisive” effect on the local community, they displaced traffic onto “arterial roads”, they caused problems for residents running local businesses, led to concerns about ambulance access, and also caused difficulties for the council’s bin collections.
But the campaigners’ barrister, David Wolfe KC, argued that these reasons were “unintelligible and inadequate”, because they did not clearly explain why it was necessary to remove the schemes in their entirety.
In her written argument responding to this point, the council’s barrister, Saira Kabir Sheikh KC, said Mr Rahman’s reasoning was “entirely adequate for its purpose”, adding that the mayor “was under no obligation to identify every piece of data, stakeholder feedback and consultation response that weighed in favour or against the policy approach adopted”.
Ms Sheikh wrote that the campaigners “true complaint” was that they disagreed with Mr Rahman’s decision “to give greater weight to” the criteria which led to the decision to remove the LTNs completely. She called this complaint “an impermissible interference with democratic decision making” which “does not found the basis for a claim in judicial review”.
Another lawyer speaking on behalf of the campaigners said that while Mr Rahman had the power to make political decisions within Tower Hamlets borough, these powers are “circumscribed”, as he still has to abide by London mayor Sadiq Khan’s official transport strategy.
Transport for London’s barrister said that the “central aim” of Mr Khan’s strategy is “the promotion of safe and healthy streets”.
Ms Sheikh countered this argument by pointing to separate legislation, the 2004 Traffic Management Act, which places a duty on councils to secure “the expeditious movement of traffic on the authority's road network”.
Mr Justice Fordham, presiding over the case, said he would deliver a verdict in due course.
