Council takes down document ‘mistakenly’ referring to LTN plans
By Adrian Zorzut, Local Democracy Reporter
A council has taken down a document from its website it says mistakenly referred to plans for Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) after admitting it had been uploaded ‘in error’.
Westminster City council said it had no plans to implement LTNs and said the document was meant to refer to Neighbourhood Traffic Management Schemes, which it says are different.
The document, known as the draft infrastructure delivery plan, had been uploaded to the council’s website. It outlined infrastructure plans for the borough and included two mentions of LTNs, which had been crossed out and replaced with ‘Neighbourhood Traffic Management’ schemes.
The references appear under a section called “active travel”, next to columns appearing to suggest current and planned “provisions” for Westminster. The document was in the early stages of being reviewed and should not have been on the website.
The webpage containing the document will also be taken down as it, too, was mistakenly published.
A council spokesman said: “The draft document was published in error and has now been removed. The council will be launching a consultation in due course and we welcome feedback from residents.”
The document – dated March 2024 – feeds into the borough’s City Plan and the council’s Fairer Westminster Strategy.
Leader of the opposition, Paul Swaddle, suggested the blunder showed the council had been considering LTNs, adding they were not mentioned in a previous plan.
He said: “I would like to thank Local Democracy Reporting team for uncovering these secret plans to introduce LTNs by the back door by just renaming them.
“Residents will be rightly worried that yet again this administration, like Sadiq Khan, appears to be anti-car, and not willing to listen.”
An LTN involves a targeted reduction of traffic by restricting vehicles on specific roads, whereas a neighbourhood traffic management scheme is any project involving road safety and environmental improvements; from dropped kerbs and dockless bikes, to EV charging and improving air quality.
Pictured top: Westminster council (Picture: Google Street View)