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Tower Hamlets Council’s determination final month to remove most of the borough’s low traffic neighbourhood schemes, regardless of a sequence of consultations exhibiting that residents have been in favour of retaining the traffic-calming measures, has been criticised by a gaggle of native headteachers, who’ve penned an open letter to mayor Lutfur Rahman urging the notoriously anti-active journey politician to reverse the choice, which they branded “an assault on 1000’s of kids’s futures”.
Final month, we reported that Tower Hamlets Council voted to scrap the walking and cycling initiatives launched by the earlier Labour administration in 2021 in Columbia Highway, Arnold Circus, and Outdated Bethnal Inexperienced.
The same Habitable Streets scheme on Canrobert Road, nonetheless, was retained, whereas a bus gate restriction in Wapping was saved attributable to “distinctive” assist in a session final yr.
“As headteachers of Tower Hamlets colleges, now we have an obligation of care to all of the younger individuals within the borough and we’re shocked and dismayed by the way in which that Mayor Rahman’s determination on 20 September deprioritised the well being and security of scholars in Bethnal Inexperienced,” the letter, addressed to councillor Mushtak Ahmed and signed by 86 primary and secondary school headteachers, stated.
This isn’t the primary time, in the meantime, that Rahman’s pro-car platform – since his re-election last year, the Aspire Celebration chief has rolled again a sequence of initiatives geared toward lowering motorcar site visitors and selling energetic journey, which he claims have elevated congestion and contributed to extra CO2 emissions within the space – has been opposed by native colleges.
Final October, youngsters, academics, and oldsters put in their very own Les Misérables-style barricade exterior a faculty in Bow in protest at the council’s decision to put an end to School Streets initiatives in the borough, designed to limit using motor autos exterior colleges at drop-off and pick-up instances – a marketing campaign that ultimately noticed Rahman reverse his determination.
> Children take to the barricades to save School Street
And of their open letter to the mayor, they accused the council of ignoring the views of native colleges when it got here to tearing out the borough’s “widespread and profitable” Habitable Streets measures, a choice they are saying would deliver the borough “again to sq. one”.
The letter stated: “5 of essentially the most affected colleges (Oaklands, Lawdale, Elizabeth Selby, Virginia, Columbia) wrote collectively to the mayor on 30 January 2023. Within the letter they outlined why they supported the present avenue layouts in Bethnal Inexperienced, their considerations in regards to the proposals to reintroduce 1000’s of additional vehicles per day in entrance of their faculty gates, and their perception that there are methods to enhance the present layouts, for instance by introducing extra managed crossings.
“The letter didn’t obtain a response, neither the mayor nor any member of his cupboard went to talk to the faculties, and it was not included within the session experiences appended to the officer report for the 20 September determination. That is an unacceptable omission within the decision-making course of.
“Mayor Rahman promotes the pursuits of Tower Hamlets’ younger individuals by his free faculty meals coverage for secondary colleges and in his determination to retain the 33 ‘faculty streets’ throughout the borough.
“Nevertheless, his determination to take away the present avenue layouts in Bethnal Inexperienced, and his failure to take any steps to scale back car journeys within the borough, are an assault on 1000’s of kids’s futures.”
The headteachers famous that, in response to the council’s public well being workforce, solely 23 p.c of kids and younger individuals in Tower Hamlets are bodily energetic and that each one colleges within the space have council-approved Faculty Journey Plans, which goal to encourage biking and strolling to high school, and lowering automotive use.
“So, infrastructure which inspires strolling and biking to high school is a robust device for the council to make use of, but the mayor has determined to spend thousands and thousands of kilos eradicating essentially the most profitable energetic journey infrastructure within the borough,” the letter stated.
The council’s personal equalities impression evaluation, the academics identified, additionally flagged through the decision-making course of that scrapping LTNs would have a very unfavourable impact on younger individuals, as a result of “improve in highway hazard, air pollution, and discouragement for strolling and biking”.
> Police urge against scrapping low traffic neighbourhood, saying it reduces crime
The letter concluded: “Whereas the instant results of this determination will likely be felt most importantly by colleges throughout the low site visitors neighbourhood in Bethnal Inexperienced, the impression will likely be felt throughout the borough.
“Youngsters and younger individuals will see that their every day security and their long-term well being is much less essential to the powers that be than the pursuits of individuals passing their colleges in motor autos.
“Extra youngsters will spend extra days doing brief journeys in vehicles, undermining their health, and growing their threat of weight problems. And they’ll all have pals in neighbouring boroughs who’re a lot happier strolling and biking to high school, the place the councils have ongoing programmes to put in and enhance energetic journey infrastructure.
“How is it rational to feed and train our youngsters properly, mandate that colleges ought to encourage strolling and biking to high school, after which take away the infrastructure which makes it protected and straightforward for younger individuals to journey in a wholesome approach every single day?”
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