Court of Appeal hears challenge to removal of low traffic neighbourhood scheme by mayor of London borough

Campaign Group Save our Safer Streets (SOSS) lost its judicial review case in December last year after Fordham J rejected all seven grounds brought against the London borough.

Measures to restrict traffic in parts of Bethnal Green were implemented by the borough's former Labour mayor, John Biggs, in 2020.

His successor, Lutfur Rahman, of the local Aspire party, said in his election manifesto that he would remove these.

The dispute is between campaigners who say the low-traffic neighbourhoods have improved road safety and air quality and Rahman, who maintains they have displaced polluting traffic onto busy main roads.

Law firm Leigh Day, which represents SOSS, said that after Rahman's election, two public consultations were conducted which found that more than half of residents surveyed remained in support of LTNs. However, the mayor went ahead with removing the scheme.  

The Court of Appeal granted SOSS permission to appeal on three grounds concerning whether the mayor's consultation process was fair, whether he took the borough's Local Implementation Plan (LIP) into account, and whether he can legally act against the LIP agreed by the council with Transport for London (TfL).

Leigh Day partner Ricardo Gama: “The Aspire party made a manifesto commitment to consult fairly on any changes to LTNs in Tower Hamlets. Our clients are looking forward to arguing in court that, not only have Aspire not stuck to that promise, they have failed to go through the proper process of revising the Local Implementation Plan that the borough agreed with the Mayor of London.” 

Jack Parker of Cornerstone Barristers is appearing for SOSS.