On Monday 14th November, Warrington South MP Andy Carter led an adjournment debate in the House of Commons to discuss the Westy Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) and the impact the scheme is having on congestion in the Latchford area. The MP outlined the background of the scheme to parliamentary colleagues and spoke of the issues faced by local residents, businesses and commuters travelling through East Latchford since the road layout changes came into effect.
The Westy LTN was introduced by Warrington Borough Council back in June of this year, for a trial period of 18 months. The scheme’s implementation has been the subject of much controversy owing to what many local people feel has been a lack of adequate public consultation by the Council. Since the commencement of the trial, the Warrington South MP has met many times with local residents and business owners to discuss how the scheme had impacted them. In one such meeting with local business owners less than a week after the earmarked roads were closed to vehicle access, all reported a drop in trade, with two businesses telling the MP that their takings were down by as much as 40 per cent on the previous week.
Andy Carter lambasted the decision of Warrington Borough Council to force through the Westy scheme despite putting the Orford LTN trial on hold to collect for further public feedback, remarking “I don’t know why exactly the Council consider my constituents in Warrington South to be less deserving of proper consultation over policies impacting their daily lives than those living in Warrington North…”. In June, Conservative councillors had twice brought forward motions calling for the Westy LTN to be halted, however both were defeated by Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors when they were voted on.
The Warrington South MP highlighted the results of a local survey he sent out to households in East Latchford to gauge opinion of the LTN since its implementation. From over 900 individual responses, 86 per cent said that they favoured a return to the old road layout, while similarly 87 per cent opposed the decision to close Grange Avenue to through traffic. Over 84 per cent of respondents reported that their journey times had increased since the scheme’s introduction, a statistic Andy Carter said “clearly flies in the face of the Council’s own environmental commitments”. Furthermore, the MP’s survey showed that 84% of respondents also felt that they had not been consulted about the road closures prior to them being implemented. He told the House that the changes made to the scheme as a result of his and the Council’s own public feedback had done nothing to address the central concerns of Latchford residents.
Summing up his debate, the MP said: “Warrington’s road network already struggles to cope with traffic because of the funnelling effect of the bridges over the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal… and it’s been that way for as long as I can remember. As I have explained, this Low Traffic Neighbourhood scheme simply won’t fulfil its stated objectives, in fact it makes the air pollution far worse because traffic sits for much longer because it isn’t flowing in the way that it was and journey times are taking longer. The Council have really failed to take into account the proper environmental and logistical impacts of their plans, and that I’m afraid is simply bewildering to me and the many residents that have been in touch to talk about this issue.
“On top of that, it’s the entire manner in which this Low Traffic Neighbourhood scheme has been imposed, without proper consultation or due consideration for local people which angers both them and myself. When you close off roads which residents and businesses depend on for their throughfare and for trade for so many years, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that it’s going to have a negative impact in other areas.”
