Antill Road - Removal of [short-lived] closure scheme

 

Today many MEOTRA residents received a letter from Tower Hamlets Council stating that the Antill Road closure is to be removed on 18th July 2022. Less than four months after it went live. (a copy of the letter is below)

You may remember getting the scheme up and running has been quite a journey (see and Making a Mountain out of Antill and Liveable Streets - Antill Road Exception Scheme). It never ends.

So we have a new Mayor and his manifesto includes some admirable pledges:

1. Work with the Mayor of London to tackle air pollution in Tower Hamlets.
2. Only introduce traffic reduction measures through consultation with, and by the consent of the people of this borough.
3. Reopen our roads, and abolish the failed Liveable Streets scheme, which has seen emergency services and vulnerable residents' access blocked.
4. Monitor the effectiveness and safety of cycle lanes, such as on Bow Road.
5. Avoid penalising those in our community who drive, who in many cases are not responsible for the bulk of air pollution.

But the letter we have received isn't consultation?  It is just stating what is going to be done. 

The emergency vehicles are not inconvenienced by this scheme at all. - There are none of those notorious road-blocking planters. It seems it is being ripped out just because the Liveable Streets/LTN brand is toxic.

I have requested a copy of the paperwork relating to the review that was carried out. 

MEOTRA would very much like to hear what you think of the changes. Please take a couple of minutes to complete a very short online form. It might well be the thing has driven you mad or you've found it helpful. Please let us know.

A copy of the letter is below.

Making a Mountain out of Antill?

 

Application Date: 28/03/2022 | Launch Date: 28/03/2022

The MEOTRA inbox has had quite a bit of traffic related to the forthcoming Antill Road changes.

The key issue is that residents can't apply for an exemption permit until the day the scheme launches. MEOTRA have tried and tried to get this madness rectified by emailing and speaking to our councillors, the borough's executive Mayor, the council officer in charge of Liveable Streets and RingGo, the private company responsible for the permit scheme. We've even had our MP, Rushanara Ali, explaining it to residents on their doorsteps!

It doesn't seem to be through a lack of political will, but more a case of "Computer Says No". Whether that is a particular council officer's computer or RingGo's computer is something MEOTRA couldn't possibly guess, though RingGo do seem to manage to look after the details for some 16 million UK cars and handle over 2 million transactions a month without much problem.

The good news is that the council is giving everyone TWO WEEKS GRACE, so you won't get fined at the scheme launch. So I'd recommend putting a calendar reminder in your diary or on your phone calendar to apply sometime after the 28th of March. This is the link to the council page in case you've lost it.

And don't forget, even without a permit, the scheme still let's you drive to anywhere you want, though you might have to go around the houses a bit.

Today I found this snippet from an old MARCH 2000 newsletter, which gives an idea of how long rat-running through our area has been discussed:

"Rat-Running in Mile End Old Town

Since the opening of the M11 link, MEOTRA has viewed with growing concern the increase in traffic that is cutting through our area from Mile End Road up to Tredegar Road and, in particular, the speed at which some vehicles go along our streets.

We are tackling this problem on two fronts. Firstly, we have written to Tom McCourt, Head of Traffic at Tower Hamlets, suggesting a number of kerb extensions to narrow some streets down to single lanes, so that cars must slow down. We are not in favour of speed bumps as these cause considerable noise, particularly for those poor residents who have to live by one! . . . Both MEOTRA and the Antill Road Residents' Association, who are also suffering from rat-running, raised the following points:

• there is a significant build up of traffic along Grove Road

• the junction of Mile End Road/Grove Road/Burdett Road is becoming increasingly dangerous (the death of a young cyclist there at the end of last year highlights this)

• lorries and vans are speeding through the area, with no regard for school children who walk in our area

• vehicles are turning right at the bottom of Tredegar Road into Coborn Road which is both illegal and dangerous

• and the obvious one of increased traffic through our area"

 

Liveable Streets - Antill Road Exception Scheme

Recently many MEOTRA residents received a letter from Tower Hamlets Council regarding the commencement of works to install a new road closure to through traffic on Antill Road on the junction with Selwyn Road.

The closure is scheduled to be operational from Monday 28th March and construction works have already begun. 

Many MEOTRA residents are entitled to apply for a permit (£20 per annum) to pass through Antill Road in a westbound direction. (Only emergency vehicles can pass in an eastbound direction).

It transpires letters were sent prematurely, before the council's IT had updated the relevant website. This has now been done, but there is still an elephant in the room: You can't apply for a permit until THE DAY the scheme launches. This is obviously bonkers and it seems to be either that "RingGo", the outside company issuing permits, are unable to have cope with application dates before the start date, or council officers are being intransient for whatever reason.

At the moment our councillors are working to sort this out - it is a bureaucratic issue, rather than a political one.

If you do manage to get your permit sorted before the day you need it, then please let us know. We are monitoring the council site for updates and chasing the issue with both RingGo and the council. Keep an eye on the relevant council page and see if the application date moves to something more sensible.

Midnight Wednesday 29th July - Deadline for consultation for Liveable Streets Bow

This Wednesday 29th July at midnight is the deadline for the Liveable Streets Bow consultation. It is cutting it a bit fine to post your response now via Royal Mail, but you can complete it online by heading over to: https://talk.towerhamlets.gov.uk/lsbow



The form takes a while to fill out. It isn't a Yes/No referendum, but a series of questions about the various aspects of the scheme with a sliding scale where you can indicate how much you support or don't support the various aspects. You can also suggest other options or detail your reasoning.

The Mayor, councillors and consultants are keen to say "The proposals aren't written in stone" so let them know your thoughts.

You do have to register (this will help reduce unfair bias from any one lobby group). So do allow a little extra time for this (I would say 15 minutes for the whole response?).

For a reasonable article giving the pro- and anti- viewpoints the Roman Road website has a balanced article including the "The Only Way is Bow" video that I strangely have a soft spot for.



Just over a week ago, we held an online Zoom meeting for MEOTRA residents giving them a chance to hear directly from our councillors the reasons for proposing the scheme and then from the consultants on the nitty-gritty of the design options. We then had a lengthy Q and A where everyone had a chance to quiz the panel.

There was a range of views from the ~40 residents who joined in. The meeting was pleasant and it was good for some of the deep-shielders to see and chat with their friends and neighbours whom they hadn't seen since March.  It wasn't the Online Quiz other RAs have had, but thanks to everyone for joining in.

A Streetcar not Named MEOTRA

In the lead up to the meeting, the Zoom address was passed on to non-residents (even though invites expressly asked residents not to do this as Zoom has a capacity limit) and this led to quite a bit of stress as MEOTRA committee members couldn't get into their own meeting that they had paid to put on! We had over a hundred try to gatecrash from the streets above.

So whether you are rich or poor, driver, cyclist or neither, born and bred or only just unpacking your moving boxes; the survey is for everyone: pour a cuppa or something stronger if you prefer and let the council know your thoughts. The more locals that feed in then hopefully the better the final scheme will be.

Deadline Midnight 29th July: https://talk.towerhamlets.gov.uk/lsbow