Cllr. Darren Johnson AM, Green Party London Assembly Member, is pressing the Mayor to abandon the urban motorway scheme once and for all. TfL believe that they can raise around £60m over a period of five years from the sale of the majority of the 432 properties which they had acquired in order to expand the road at Bounds Green. Darren is calling on the Mayor to put all of this money into a package of smaller scale measures to reduce traffic along the North Circular and in surrounding areas.
Darren Johnson said:
"It is time to end the delay and decay. It is time for Ken to do what he was going to do two years ago and drop the six lane option in favour of traffic reduction. Selling off the properties provides a big opportunity to regenerate the area and to spend the money on a set of community schemes which will reduce traffic. Instead of more tarmac leading to more traffic, we have the chance to put the cycle into reverse with less cars and less pollution."
One of the Government’s transport advisers, Professor Goodwin, recently produced a report for TfL which claimed that you could reduce traffic in London by up to 15% by spending a lot of money on smaller schemes such as car sharing, cycling and walking facilities, travel awareness and safe routes to school. The London Mayor has currently set aside £4m for traffic management measures in the surrounding area, as part of the smaller scheme improvements to the North Circular. Darren wants to see the whole £60m from the property sale used and to have local people engaged with an ambitious plan to reduce traffic.
Notes to Editors
Darren Johnson’s question to the Mayor is:
"Now that the Government have again rejected the idea of funding the A406 expansion to six lanes, will you return to your original decision that this scheme would "generate further traffic, be delivered at a very high cost, require a public inquiry and take many years to complete"? Will you now act to end the decay caused by over twelve years of delay and indecision by acting upon your decision and selling off the TfL owned properties along the safeguarded route?"