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ANPR protected LTN in LB EalingMayoral candidate Shaun Bailey releases video comparing Low Traffic Neighbourhoods to Tour de France
The Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey has come under fire after posting a bizarre video in which Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are compared to the biggest cycling race in the world, the Tour de France.
Sadiq Khan has imposed LTNS on residents without proper consultation or consideration for the traffic and pollution they would cause.
As Mayor, I'll hand back control to residents to decide what type of road they want to live on.
I'll scrap any unwanted LTNs within 100 days. pic.twitter.com/cNICLwZFlp
— Shaun Bailey (@ShaunBaileyUK) April 23, 2021
The video, released as part of his election campaign, features a London cab driver telling Bailey, who wants to scrap any 'unwanted' LTNs within 100 days if he is elected, 'We're not living in the Tour de France, London is a business city'.
The driver then claims LTNs have no upside, cause more pollution, and make disabled people's lives even more difficult.
Posting on Twitter, Bailey wrote: "Sadiq Khan has imposed LTNs on residents without proper consultation or consideration for the traffic and pollution they would cause.
"As Mayor, I'll hand back control to residents to decide what type of road they want to live on.
"I'll scrap any unwanted LTNs within 100 days."
Commentators pointed out that the responsibility for LTNs actually rests with councils and therefore Bailey would be unable to follow up on his promises.
In the video, Bailey is being driven around the streets of the capital by a disgruntled cab driver.
Footage of professional cyclists racing down the Champs-Élysées is mixed with a monologue from the driver on the perceived problems of LTNs.
The cabbie says: "We're not living in the Tour de France. We're living in a working city where there are people with different needs.
"I'm not sure where any of the upside of any of this is.
"Basically, a lot of vehicles, myself included, would have been able to cut through some of these backstreets to miss out the traffic jam and get our clients and passengers to their destination quicker, and cheaper.
"But because all these backstreets have been closed off for these LTNs, we just sit in a traffic jam."
That's why we're doing the LTNs lol pic.twitter.com/ZAZ9W90Ftt
— m̶a̶i̶d̶s̶t̶o̶n̶e̶onbike (@maidstoneonbike) April 24, 2021
As Twitter users pointed out however: "What Shaun calls ‘back streets’ are actually known as ‘your streets’."
In the video, Bailey says: "They've been put in too quickly, they haven't spoken to local people, and a lot of the time they're putting them in places where there's no traffic.
"What they're doing, they're pushing that small amount of traffic onto the main roads which are making even longer traffic jams and even more pollution."
The cab driver then goes further and claims that LTNs are responsible for delaying emergency service vehicles.
This is despite the fact that the only study of the issue found no delays.
Neither the London ambulance service (LAS) or London fire brigade (LFB) believe there is a problem; and attempts to prove a widespread issue fell apart on closer examination, the Guardian reports.
The LFB also keeps detailed data on response times and the stated reasons for any delays.
Studying more than 23,000 incidents in the borough of Waltham Forest between 2012 and 2020, the study found no evidence that LTNs, slowed crews.
Nonetheless, the cab driver continued: "London is a business city.
"The emergency services try to get to a call they've got the lights flashing, the sirens going, and they're stuck in a traffic jam, and there's no way out of it.
"People in wheelchairs are screwed. They're not being helped if you've got a cycle lane.
"If they want to get in a taxi along here I've got to get the wheelchair ramp out onto a cycle lane."
He then adds, however, 'cycle lanes are a great idea' before trying to assert that not enough people ride to work in the winter months.
"Look at this", he added, pointing to a road full of cars. "No one anywhere in London, and there's a traffic jam. That's why I've gone bald."
I know election broadcasts tend to be fact-light places, but this is particularly dreadful. Not even any attempt to engage with the evidence. And that’s not even getting into the fact that LTNs are decided by councils, not the mayor. https://t.co/KTklXosy1K
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) April 24, 2021
Cycling commentator Ned Boulting, was also quick to respond to the inflammatory post asking if Bailey's team had thought to contact the Tour organisers before they used the footage.
Writing on Twitter, he said: "I’m assuming your team have acquired the correct licence for use of Tour de France footage.
"@LeTour is quite protective of its intellectual property. But you know that, because you’ll have paid them for this usage in a political campaign."
Khan and Bailey argue over who is responsible for problems surrounding low traffic neighbourhoods.
See more on LTNs: https://t.co/xu1Gw1Va9c #BBCLondonVote2021 #BBCLondon pic.twitter.com/Ea0qOedAmt
— BBC London (@BBCLondonNews) April 25, 2021
Latest Comments
- hawkinspeter 1 hour 50 min ago
Interesting theory - how many points does it take for them to drive carefully?
- eburtthebike 2 hours 13 min ago
At the end of the consultation in May 2025, a decision will be taken.........
- Grahamd 2 hours 37 min ago
The absurdity of it deepens when you realise that those points were acquired by the age of 26.
- David9694 4 hours 11 min ago
BAM!
- IanGlasgow 4 hours 47 min ago
"Polartec Power Shield RPM fabric – which has a 10,000mm hydro head to keep wet weather out, and an industry-leading breathability spec of 30,000g...
- mdavidford 5 hours 50 min ago
Oxfordshire councils are quite capable of letting you down too!...
- levestane 6 hours 5 min ago
'each spoke' (single) and 'leaf spring' (made of many leaves) seems contradictory.
- PenLaw 6 hours 57 min ago
I guess Morrissey could claim it.
- wtjs 7 hours 22 min ago
I do see a lot of delivery riders (on illegal e-motorbikes) with their faces covered...
- David9694 8 hours 3 min ago
Stuff like this seems more relevant than ever after the Trump victory. sorry not a funny
Add new comment
19 comments
Shaun Bailey is trying to sound like he is going to do something when he neither has the power (as the article says they are on borough controled roads) and residents will have a say at the end of the trial anyway.
Pretty sure the majority of residents in the LTN will not want the rat runners back.
Some people who live in an area near a LTN have complained saying they are getting more traffic, but that could be solved with more LTNs.
Surely the key phrase here is "As Mayor, I'll hand back control to residents to decide what type of road they want to live on."
I suspect that his real challenge is going to be to persuade people that they really would prefer to live on a dangerous, fume choked, car clogged street as opposed to being able to walk outside their front doors or even just sit in whatever outdoor space they have listening to birds signing and children playing before a gentle stroll to the local outdoor cafe.
I wonder what will happen when residents living next to the north circular vote to be an LTN.
I suspect that all concern about listening to the local residents might suddenly not be a priority.
My road in North London is a cut through for drivers avoiding a big roundabout. Bring me an LTN now thanks. Plus a 20mph limit. Dont think Shaun (who has no chance of election) would go for that.
Ooh dear poor old Joe Le Taxi
An expert in everything except the facts
Last time I got in a black cab, the meter started turning the moment the driver hit the button.
It still turned at red lights.
It still turned in traffic jams.
Stuck in traffic, the driver made cash for doing nothing.
So, if LTNs cause traffic jams, won't cab fares be less?
Isn't this turkeys voting for Christmas?
But even if he picked up on those points, it is still the local councils who are involved and not the London Mayor.
true, but they get the funding to build them via the London streetspace scheme TfL has funds for which is in the Mayors office choice to change, plus as TfL discovered in their court case back in January, the law does insist even if these schemes are considered temporary, that certain statutory processes are followed.
and its certainly not outside of the Mayors powers to insist councils follow their statutory duties and laws to properly consult on these schemes which at some point when the 18months experimental/temporary orders run out either have to switch to permanent or be removed anyway.
That's true, but he is stating that he will remove unwanted LTNs in his first 100 days as mayor ... and he doesn't have the power to do that.
I thought some of the funding was also coming from Central Government seperate to TFL.
Well, someone from the party led by Boris the Liar is hardly going to be truthful are they; that said, this is so blatantly untrue that I'd be tempted to report it to the responsible authority if I lived in London. It's just lies from start to finish, and I had to check that it wasn't the 1st of April today and this wasn't deliberate sabotage by his opponents.
Can you report election publicity for lying? if so, to whom?
If you could report politicians/wannabe politicians for lying, the body responsible would be the busiest regulatory authority in the UK...
In a time when you have such a voice of moral authority as Dominic 'eye test' Cummings denouncing, with no apparent sense of irony, the ethical vaccum in government, it's difficult to know whether to laugh or cry.
Yes, I've had to pinch myself several times when this is mentioned, and I haven't heard anyone in the msm point it out. Where's that vomitting emoji?
Who in the remarkably proficient No 10 machine thought it was a good idea to dump on Dom. Yes the public hate him, but he is aware of many dark secrets.
Though generally he doesn't seem the vengeful type to me...
To be fair, I was in the car for a while yesterday listening to 5Live, and every time the story came up there was a discussion about the irony of Cummings pointing this out and whether or not you could actually believe or trust anything either party was saying.
Point of order. Bailey might be standing for the Tories, but he isn't *really* a tory. He isn't *really* an 'anything'. He's just using then to try and build up a profile for himself. Grifter's gonna grift.
It's pathetic that the Tories would stand such an obviously unelectable candidate because they know they can't beat Khan, and disenfranches all the tory voters in London (both of them 😏).
No true tory eh?
I suppose that's the same as Boris only deciding the night before on whether he was going to support Brexit or Remain... (writing two columns, IIRC).