Another Streatham school is to be left waiting to discuss the effects of the Streatham Wells LTN, after Lambeth cancelled its planned meeting with parents and staff at Julian's Primary. A meeting with Sunnyhill Primary last week was also cancelled, at short notice.
An email from Lambeth said that the Julian's meeting - scheduled for Feb 22nd, in nine days' time - was postponed "due to unforeseen circumstances" and would be rescheduled "for a later date".
Local residents keen for more discussion about the impacts of the LTN have already been disappointed this year, after a "three-month review", apparently announced by a councillor in December and including the area's schools, failed to materialise.
These school meetings have turned out to be part of the six-month "stage 2" review, which forms a standard part of the council's published monitoring strategy for its LTNs. They are open to the school's parents and staff, at times during the school's working day.
It is understood that they are currently the only consultation mechanism available to schools as part of stage-2 monitoring. Feedback is to be taken from individuals at the meetings, but the council is not thought to be consulting the schools themselves, as institutions.
The feeling that the council isn't doing enough to be open - and to be seen to be open - about the effects of its LTNs will only be strengthened by the cancellations - especially as Lambeth will already have a good idea of the turn-out and tone that it can expect at them.
Attendees were to email the council in advance with their details, and given an online questionnaire. Questions include "Has the LTN trial made it easier for you to cycle to/from the school?" and "Has the LTN trial made it easier for you to use public transport to/from school?".
The questionnaire also allows for comments about the LTN's configuration and asks for ideas to "support you to move around more sustainably".
The promise of a three-month review, apparently in addition to the six-month review, came at December's online meeting of the Streatham Action community forum. "The latest is that there will be a three-month review of the Streatham Wells low-traffic neighbourhood...
...as the first of the number of reviews that are part of the trial process," a Labour councillor told the meeting, after a briefing with council officers. That review was "likely to be end of January, early February".
"As preparation for that, Cabinet members engage with, I guess, key stakeholders, so schools, health centres the BID [business improvement district] and others to try and arrange meetings or conversations with those key stakeholders...
... Some before Christmas, but probably mainly afterwards, to help set up the wider engagement and review process for that three-month review."
Lambeth has recently employed traffic counters on the roads in and around the LTN, close to three months since the start of the scheme in late October. It's not clear which "stage" this traffic monitoring fits into, but it seems likely that they are also part of stage-2...
... which Lambeth also calls the "settling down" period. "During the six months following the start of the trial period we will conduct a full round of traffic, air quality and community feedback monitoring," the council's monitoring strategy document says.
"This can give us an accurate reflection of how an LTN area is performing against the objectives, accounting for the effect of external factors."
There is no evidence that the councillor's apparent misreporting of the process came from anything more than a misunderstanding in a chain of communication. But the fact that even Labour councillors are unclear about the monitoring process will only add to transparency concerns.
@streathamstuff asked Lambeth several days ago for clarification on these aspects of the monitoring and engagement process, and will update this article as and when any information is received.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
