LTN traffic -calming zones in London delay fire crews - “The Times”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/3248bade-8ff6-11eb-930d-e9e6e3751f8f?shareToken=a04815f37dabe4492a243c42e3b45cbfLOW-TRAFFIC NEIGHBOURHOODSLTN traffic-calming zones in London delay fire crewsSome schemes have bitterly divided communities with residents of boundary roads saying they are enduring more traffic, congestion and pollutionSome schemes have bitterly divided communities with residents of boundary roads saying they are enduring more traffic, congestion and pollutionAndrew Ellson, Consumer Affairs CorrespondentMonday March 29 2021, 12.01am, The TimesDelays to emergency call-outs have risen sharply where low traffic neighbourhoods have been introduced, fire service records show.Slowed responses caused by traffic calming measures have jumped by more than a third in London boroughs with new low-traffic zones, a Freedom of Information Act request shows, but have barely increased in areas without new low-traffic zones.Frontline emergency workers said they were worried that their bosses were ignoring the problem due to political pressure from supporters of the schemes.Scores of low-traffic zones have been introduced over the past year, with bollards or planting boxes allowing only pedestrians and cyclists to pass. Videos have emerged online of fire engines and ambulances stopping at the roadblocks or mounting kerbs to get around them. In some cases, paramedics and firefighters have walked to incidents.Councils argue the schemes are needed to stop “rat running” and beat the “climate emergency” by encouraging residents to stop using cars for short journeys. Opponents argue that the environmental benefits do not materialise because drivers are just diverted on to other roads.Communities have become bitterly divided over the schemes, with residents of boundary roads saying they are enduring more traffic, congestion and pollution to benefit roads within the zones.The London Fire Brigade data shows there were more than 330 delays a month because of traffic calming measures between June and November 2020, up 18 per cent on a year earlier. In boroughs that introduced low-traffic zones last year, delays jumped by 35 per cent. The increase in areas without new low-traffic zones was only 2.8 per cent.The delays could have been caused by traffic calming measures other than low-traffic zones but the disparity between the increase in areas with and without low-traffic zones suggests that the schemes are responsible for the greater part of the increase.The fire service would not condemn the barriers and said it “supports proposals to promote active travel”. It points out that response times overall were on average 12 seconds faster last year although it admits that traffic levels were much lower because of lockdown.It says the data show “unexpected delays” and over time this should settle down as crews become used to the new barriers. The service added that it will continue to monitor response times to ensure there is no materially adverse effect over time.Its failure to speak out about the delays has raised concerns among rank and file firefighters that senior managers are playing politics with people’s lives.One serving officer, who asked not to be named, said: “The bosses are controlled by Sadiq Khan and don’t want to upset him as he controls the budget.” The Mayor of London is a supporter of low-traffic zones.The firefighter added: “This is definitely a problem that has popped up. We have FB14 keys [for bollards] but they don’t help if there is a flower box blocking the way through.”The Times has also seen internal emails released under freedom of information rules that show that in some areas of London, councils have gone ahead with low-traffic zones despite concerns and objections from all three emergency services.In one case, a fire service official wrote to the London Ambulance Service asking it to lodge “an official request” to suspend works on a low traffic zone in east London. The email states: “At least this way there will be official documentation to present in the event that someone dies as a result of not being able to get an ambulance to them if the planned works go ahead and do cause havoc on the main routes with gridlock and traffic jams.”In another, an ambulance service official says that councils “sometimes struggle to understand the needs of the emergency services”.The Times has spoken to a senior clinician working in emergency medicine who has expressed concerns about the delays. He said he did not want to go on the record because he would get “mobbed by cycling activists”.He said: “The emergency service is not keen to engage on this issue because people [from the cycling lobby] have a go at them internally. They will be members of the London Cycling Campaign and they say we should be encouraging public health through active travel. A few hospital trust chief executives have signed their support for these schemes but when you speak to front line staff and ambulance crews they say the low-traffic zones are awful.“They don’t even want bollards with keys as it takes too long. When it comes to strokes or heart attacks, every second counts.”In a statement, the London Fire Brigade said: “We have continued to meet our attendance targets throughout the pandemic and delays overall have actually reduced over a five-year period.“We work closely with local authorities and are consulted when there are road closure proposals. If we have concerns that changes may impact response times, we’ll raise these and work with the local authority to find the best solution.”Case studyThe family of a man who died after an ambulance was delayed by a fixed bollard in a low traffic neighbourhood said it was “deeply concerned” that the emergency services did not have full access to some streets. The ambulance service has launched an inquiry after a crew failed to reach the man, 87, in Cowley, Oxfordshire, in their target response time. He had suffered a suspected heart attack. The family accept that the delay did not contribute to his death. The man’s son, who did not want to be named, told The Telegraph it was an elderly community and “such delays could mean the difference between life and death”.
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