As local elections approach, few issues spark the passion that has greeted the rise of the new controlled zones
A few weeks ago, the Daily Mail ran a lengthy feature exploring how “eco-crazy councils turned our streets into Gridlock Britain”. It begins with a heartrending and in no way manipulative story about how the traffic jams in the north London borough of Islington are upsetting a disabled 13-year-old boy.
Across the river in Lambeth, the council is celebrating a victory after the court of appeal declined to order a judicial review into three different low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) across the borough. No matter: the local Tories have promised that, in the unlikely event they win next month’s council elections, they’ll scrap them all anyway.
Jonn Elledge is former assistant editor of the New Statesman
