Mystery vandal targets Low Traffic Neighbourhood signs and cameras rendering them useless
By Grainne Cuffe, local democracy reporter
A mystery vandal has targeted signs and cameras in a Lambeth low traffic neighbourhood.
The unknown vandal, or vandals, have painted over five cameras that are supposed to be enforcing road closures in the Streatham Hill LTN, rendering them completely useless.
According to locals, the vandals either paint the cameras or push them up to face the sky – and it’s happening at least every month.
There are six LTNs in Lambeth – Streatham Hill, Tulse Hill, Cornwall Road, Ferndale, Railton, Oval and Stockwell.
The Streatham Hill LTN was introduced in August, 2020. The council has since increased the size of the area after complaints about traffic being pushed onto neighbouring roads.
All the original road closures have been targeted. They include one LTN on Palace Road, just before the junction with Daysbrook Road, two on Amesbury Avenue where it meets Emsworth Street and Faygate Road, and two at the junction of Downton Avenue, Wavertree Road, and Hillside Road.
Like many other councils, Lambeth began implementing LTNs, sets of road closures with the aim of reducing car use and promoting active travel, under Covid-19 emergency measures last year.
The council already had plans to install LTNs across the borough before the pandemic.
But their rollout was accelerated after the Government set a time frame that meant local authorities had to get the LTNs in quickly or they wouldn’t be eligible for funding.
The schemes have been divisive. While there is support for the LTNs, some argue the road closures disproportionately affect disabled and elderly people, carers who need to drive for work, and funnel much more traffic down other roads.
On Monday (June 28) a disabled woman “heavily reliant” on her car lost her legal challenge over Lambeth’s LTNs.
Sophia Sheakh, who lives just outside the Railton Road LTN between Herne Hill and Brixton, became seriously ill from Covid-19 last year and was in a coma for weeks.
She alleged that Lambeth had failed to consult residents and that the LTNs have a negative impact on disabled people.
A High Court judge dismissed all her claims and said the road closures were a “genuine experiment”.
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