Festus Akinbusoye was the Conservative Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner from 2021 to 2024.
The architectural serenity of Westminster offers a rare vantage point from which to observe the escalating friction defining modern London. While this borough where I live has maintained a commitment to fluid movement, our neighbours have succumbed to an orthodoxy that treats the city as a static laboratory rather than a vibrant economy.
The proliferation of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) – especially in our poorest boroughs, has evolved from a well-intentioned environmental trial, into a religion of automated enforcement that disproportionately penalises those who can least afford the price of admission to our roads.
The human cost of this experiment is most visible in the levels of unpaid fines. Recent data published in the Telegraph reveals a deepening crisis of legitimacy in the capital, with barely 60 per cent of the Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) issued for LTN infractions over the last five years being settled by motorists. This widespread non-compliance suggests that we are not witnessing a wave of casual lawbreaking, but rather a profound grassroots rejection and anger toward a policy that feels predatory rather than protective. For a delivery driver in a place like Newham where I grew up, or a tradesman in Tower Hamlets where I went to school – boroughs consistently ranked within the most deprived 10 per cent of local authorities in England; a single camera-generated fine could represent a significant portion of their daily take-home pay.
There is however an uncomfortable paradox at the heart of the “quiet streets” movement: the displacement of congestion from affluent residential enclaves onto the arterial boundary roads where the working poor reside and take buses.
Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, whose advocacy following the tragic death of her daughter Ella, has become a cornerstone of the clean air debate. She has rightly raised concerns, and warned that current LTN strategies risk becoming a whitewash if they merely move the problem around the corner, which they do. When traffic is funnelled onto main roads, it is the residents of social housing blocks and the commuters waiting at bus stops who inhale the concentrated fumes of idling vehicles.
The economic paralysis resulting from these barriers is quantifiable. The Tom Tom Traffic Index has consistently crowned London the slowest capital city in the world, with drivers losing up to 141 hours to congestion annually. It now takes an average of 3 minutes and 38 seconds to travel just 1km (0.6 miles) in central London. The worst period in 2025 was during the train strikes.
There is data also directly linking the slowdown in traffic in London to increasing installation of LTNs. It is however surprising to note efforts made by the Mayor’s office to suppress evidence which showed that LTNs did not reduce car use as was initially promised. I wonder why. Cars do not simply vanish from existence because of flower boxes installed on roads.
These disruptive schemes have devastating effects on the public transport network that the Mayor claims to champion. Data highlighted by the London Assembly Conservative Group shows that bus speeds have plummeted in areas where LTNs have been implemented without adequate mitigation; turning a simple cross-town journey into a gruelling endurance test for those with the patience of a biblical Job.
There is also a direct cost to the public purse for this. As bus journeys take longer due to congestion, passenger numbers are falling too. Why take a bus when you can get to your destination faster through other modes of travel? The Mayor is now subsiding London’s buses to the tune of £1.2 billion a year.
This is more than a transportation and ideological issue, it is also an assault on the social mobility of the capital. The “laptop class” may enjoy the newfound silence of their ‘walled’ cul-de-sacs, but the electrician navigating a labyrinth of bollards to reach a job site, or the night-shift nurse whose commute has doubled in distance is paying a hidden tax on their time and productivity.
Small businesses, already reeling from inflationary pressures, find their supply chains strangled and their customer footfall eroded by a design that treats the economy as an afterthought. Rather than pursuing a policy of managed immobility, we should be investing in the technological and natural solutions that provide clean air without social exclusion.
We must pivot from restrictive, punitive measures that disproportionately squeeze lower-income households toward a strategy built on common-sense and innovation. Instead of “barricaded zones” and daily fines, a truly progressive vision prioritises the rapid expansion of green canopies to act as natural carbon sinks and the roll-out of AI-driven traffic management to dissolve congestion without blocking trade. Investment in infrastructure for electric commercial fleets and making public transport much more reliable, safe, and efficient should be key areas of focus – not more LTNs.
The burgeoning rebellion on our streets from Hackney to Lambeth; Tower Hamlets to Ealing, and the mounting legal challenges against these schemes should serve as a warning to policymakers. People are fed up with all these punishing restrictions and punitive measures.
Enough is enough.