While controversial to some, LTNs have been hugely successful in reducing traffic in local streets where most people live, and made life greener and safer for all, especially children, the elderly and disabled. Islington Council plans to continue implementing LTNs and from now on each LTN will be rolled out as part of a Liveable Neighbourhood, which will also include more green spaces, pavement improvements, etc. – a very welcome initiative.
Also, from now on (at some point after the May 2022 local elections), the community will be invited to participate in the design of each LTN, via an Engagement and Design (E&D) process. We understand that we in Barnsbury & St Mary's wards will be the first community to be invited to participate in this process.
Designing LTNs in the street maze that makes up Islington is not an easy task – we know, because over the last 18 months our group has been trying out various designs for Barnsbury & St Mary's and we are still learning. We would love to share what we have learnt about LTN design and get everyone's feedback on our neighbourhood and its particularities.
As a local resident you have valuable local knowledge. You each have a special understanding of how the streets of this area work. We hope this page will support you in bringing your best to the E&D process, so that we all get the best possible LTN.
Note that we include St Mary's because even though St Mary's Church LTN is already implemented (subject to consultation), there remain many unfiltered streets in the part of St Mary's ward between Caledonian Road and Upper Street, such as: Furlong Road, Islington Park Street, Barnsbury Street and Theberton Street.
We have put together a playbook of design criteria and guidelines, with tailored thinking about the bespoke problems of our much loved neighbourhood.
- Read Design criteria to learn more about how LTNs work and how their success can be assessed.
- Then, delve deeper into how to design an LTN by reading General guidelines for good LTN design.
- To see how the general guidelines might apply to Barnsbury & St Mary's, read Specific points of our LTN area. And here we expect you to have thoughts like: "But they've said nothing about such-and-such corner/street – that really needs to be considered".
As we said – it's going to take the input of lots of people to design the best LTN. We'll certainly be front and centre, we look forward to you joining in!
