Building Strong Communities

Every single street in London has to prioritise the needs of people over the needs of those who want to drive through them. Streets must be places where residents can stand outside and hang out and chat with their neighbours and feel safe. The introduction of new LTNs in some parts of London have helped achieve this, but these streets are still dominated by parked cars and these spaces can be put to better use, and LTNs are too few and far between. Tottenham is only now consulting residents on the implementation of its first LTN (in the Bruce Grove area) and has a long way to go to catch up to Hackney. It's unfair that there's a large divide concerning this in two neighbouring boroughs. Making streets more people-friendly help to tackle a huge range of problems in society - cleaner air, less noise, safer, less crime (due to the higher presence of people), healthier and more active lifestyles and better social cohesion. Making streets which are less attractive for driving increases the chances of people using healthier and cheaper modes of transport such as the bicycle, making improving health and people's personal finances. I fear that progress in making this happen is much too slow and not enough is being done to combat backlash from the likes of cabbies and dinosaur councillors.