Forum topic: Council leader approves making Bowes LTN scheme permanent

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Enfield Council leader Nesil Caliskan has approved making the Bowes low-traffic neighbourhood scheme permanent and the decision will come into effect on 12th January, subject to the outcome of a likely "call-in" by opposition councillors. A neighbouring scheme to be trialled by Haringey Council, possibly as early as this month or next, will expand the scheme down to Bounds Green Road (the maps published here show the combined effect of the two borough's schemes).

As reported previously, Enfield Council's Healthy Streets team issued its final report on trial operation of the low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN) scheme in the Bowes Primary Quieter Neighbourhood in early December. On 17th December it was reissued with some changes to the analysis of traffic conditions to take account of the effects of the "fuel crisis" that occurred in September. These did not alter the overall recommendation to the council leader that she should approve the scheme being made permanent. After consideration, Cllr Caliskan took the decision to do so at the end of December.

While the scheme will be unaltered for the time being, information about the decision published as an update on the Let's Talk Enfield website states that the council will be considering various potential modifications to allow for easier access by emergency services, exemptions for residents with disabilities or caring responsibilities, a school street for Bowes School and a possible "bus gate" which would prevent cars from using Brownlow Road as a through route while allowing buses to do so.

The same update mentions that "A review is undertaken of traffic speed and volume on the unclassified roads, monitored as part of this project, that are outside the Bowes QN area. This will inform the potential residential areas of focus for further QN style interventions." This probably relates to streets to the east of Green Lanes, which some residents have claimed are experiencing additional traffic as a result of the Bowes LTN. Whether or not the LTN has made it worse, there is no doubt that there is a problem, going back for a decade or more, caused by drivers using Wolves Lane and either Grenoble Gardens or Berkshire Gardens as an A105 bypass. In 2016 the council trialled a scheme designed to stop this, but it was a failure because drivers simply ignored the No Motor Vehicles signs. The alternative of adding a median strip in Green Lanes to prevent drivers turning right out of Grenoble Gardens and Berkshire Gardens was never implemented, even though there were reportedly many collisions caused by these right turns. A "QN-style intervention", preferably an LTN scheme to solve the problem of heavy traffic on Wolves Lane/Tottenhall Road/Chequers Way/Pasteur Gardens, is certainly needed.