Elsdale Street and Mead Place low traffic neighbourhood

The trial

In 2020, we introduced a trial low traffic neighbourhood in Mead Place and Elsdale Street, to help:

• create cleaner, quieter streets
• support people to walk, shop and cycle
• rebuild a greener after the pandemic

The traffic filters use planters in the road to restrict through traffic – allowing only cyclists, waste and emergency vehicles to pass through.

Traffic and air quality analysis

Analysis of traffic and air quality data since the low traffic neighbourhood was introduced shows that:

• following the introduction of the low traffic neighbourhood, traffic levels were down by 2% inside the low traffic neighbourhood and down by 15% on boundary roads – some roads inside the LTN (Belsham Street, Cresset Road and Poole Road) have seen an increase in traffic, which we think could be as a result of a new rat run that has opened up in the area – we’ll carry out further investigation into those roads to see if we can introduce any further measures to mitigate these increases
• levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution are down at the five monitoring locations in the area

We have also carried out a comprehensive equalities impact assessment, looking at the impact of low traffic neighbourhoods on groups with protected characteristics, such as race, gender or disability.

Making the low traffic neighbourhood permanent

After considering the traffic data, alongside the comments made by residents, we have now made a decision to make this low traffic neighbourhood permanent.

We will continue to monitor the effects of the filters and listen to feedback about the scheme.

You can email comments to: streetscene.enquiries@hackney.gov.uk.

View the full decision report, engagement report and equalities impact assessment:

• delegated powers decision report

Commonplace responses

Throughout the trial, we encouraged people to respond to our Commonplace page, which was used to identify issues with the LTN and make changes where appropriate.

• 298 responses were received on our Commonplace page
• 64% of respondents who provided a postcode were from the local area (E9)
• overall, 46% of responses were in favour of making all or some of the measures permanent
• in the local area (E9), 48% said all or some of the measures should be made permanent. 52% said none should be made permanent
• among non-motorists, who make up 70% of Hackney households, 66% said the measures should be made permanent

The top two concerns raised in resident responses were increased traffic and air pollution, which is why the Council has completed monitoring of the scheme before making a decision on whether or not to make it permanent.

Full traffic and air quality data from the area

The table below compares traffic counts taken in February 2022 with February 2019.

Air quality

The table below shows monitored nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations in 2021, after the low traffic neighbourhood’s implementation, compared with 2019.

Concentrations below 40μg/m3 meet the national air quality objective for nitrogen dioxide.