Agenda item

Report of the Director of Environment and Sustainability

This report is in response to a petition which was received by the Council in regard to extending the Dartmouth Park Area Healthy Neighbourhood consultation deadline. The petition states, ‘We’re asking for an extension, explanation of the purpose and objectives and real consultation.’ The petition received 2308 signatures, of those 595 signatures are Camden addresses. The report outlines the Council’s response in addressing the key issues raised in the petition.

As part of our Camden Transport Strategy programme of works, officers have developed initial proposals for a “Healthy Neighbourhood” in the area of Dartmouth Park covering Highgate, Kentish Town North ward and part of the London Borough of Islington.

The project’s main aims are:

·         Make the area greener, healthier, and more pleasant to spend time in, with new plants, trees, and seating.

·         Create safer streets in the area for children to travel independently, feel confident walking, scooting, and cycling, and with new areas for play.

·         Reduce traffic in the area to make local streets quieter, less polluted, and safer to walk and cycle around.

·         Support local businesses to thrive; and

·         Improve health and wellbeing through cleaner air and by making it easier to walk, cycle and wheel.

This Healthy Neighbourhood project has just undergone a six-week Phase 2 Engagement with local people to collect feedback and comments on initial proposals shared. This phase 2 engagement was the second phase of a 3-phase process of engagement for the project.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Environment and Sustainability which was a response to a petition.

The petition requested that the Council extend the consultation period for the scheme, conduct proper consultation and provide an explanation of the purpose and objectives of the scheme.

In considering the petition, the Committee heard from Andrew Sulston (Chair Highgate Society) (Lead petitioner) and Charlotte Alderson (a local resident) who expressed their concerns over the limited time period taken to engage with all stakeholders, the apparent lack of a well-designed plan based on robust data which would lead to long term congestion and pollution in surrounding areas impacting many lower income households. Agreeing with the Transport Secretary’s view that LTNs should be implemented with local community support and asserting that the Council’s delivery of the co-design phase was inadequate, they asked that the Committee either recommend that the Council re-run the co-design or that the phase 3 consultation period be extended from the standard four weeks to twelve weeks.

The Committee also heard deputations from David Metz, Jeremy Leach, Chair of London Living Streets, Stephen King, 4 Roads Group and Graeme Blythe parent of a local primary school pupil (who were broadly in support of the Councils proposals for the Dartmouth Park Area LTN). The Committee also heard from Councillor Lorna Russell who noted that it was a complex scheme that would bring about significant change to the area and therefore felt it was critical that time be taken to get the scheme right considering data, evidence, and the views of residents and local groups.

In their response to the petition officers stated that “engagement and consultation were a highly valued part of the Council’s Healthy Streets scheme development. The views of residents, businesses and stakeholders were used to gauge the overall level of support or objection to a proposal and also impact on revisions of plans/designs, for example to either improve the scheme or respond to issues that Officers may not have been aware of.

Officers advised that the views of the borough’s communities played an important part in the decision-making process, alongside relevant data and policies, which all helped to create the final scheme”.  As such in November 2021 Camden’s Cabinet approved the Council’s approach to consultation and decision-making for healthy streets transport schemes.

Officers highlighted how the Dartmouth Park Area Healthy Neighbourhood project aligned with the Council’s adopted approach to engagement and consultation for a ‘large’ scheme of this type. It was also noted that prior to the current scheme, similar proposals were under consideration by the Council and requested, for a number of years (since 2017/18) by stakeholders across the Highgate Ward.

During the discussion Committee members sought clarity from the petitioners on the number of responses from residents that they would regard as adequate, given that the report highlighted that 2,000 responses had been received during the engagement phase. Officers were asked how responsive the Council was to feedback from the data and real-life experience from the trials, as this was fundamental in getting the detail of the scheme right, and whether the phase 3 consultation could be extended as suggested by the petitioners from 4 weeks to 12 weeks.

In response the petitioners advised that the feedback received from the people they had talked to was, that it was a complex scheme and the Council had not appeared to have considered alternative measures. No explanation was given of why alternative traffic management measures were dismissed. There needed to be an improvement in the quality of the engagement.

In response to Committee members questions, officers and the Cabinet Member for Best Start for Children and Families advised that, they agreed that a flexible approach was the right way in developing such schemes, taking on board information and data from trials and changing some of the locations of the traffic restrictions that came up from public feedback as had occurred in other schemes put forward by the Council such as the Queens Crescent and Arlington Road Schemes.

The consultation period was defined as a minimum of 4 weeks, this had been extended on previous schemes in the past and officers would be willing to consider extending the length of the period of consultation for this scheme which was not set in stone.

In considering the petition, the Committee discussed the 3 available options:

·       No further action is necessary;

·       A further report should come back to the Committee; or

·       The matter should be referred to the relevant decision-making body or officer of the Council with a recommendation on what to do. (In this case the Director of Environment and Sustainability in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Best Start for Children and Families)

The Committee noted that officers had recommended that no further action was necessary, a member suggested that while phase 2 consultation should not be reopened the Committee should encourage officers to follow upon the direction of their comments and extend the phase 3 consultation as much as realistically possible in order that everyone that wished to contribute could at the proper stage of the process.

Invited to comment of this suggestion the Head of Transport Strategy and Projects advised that the consultation period was set out in the Cabinet approved consultation and decision-making process which was a minimum four-week period. He informed the Committee that an extension to that period for a particular scheme could be looked at and this would be taken away for consideration.

Action By: Head of Transport Strategy and Projects

The Committee thanked the petitioners and deputees for attending the meeting and highlighting their concerns with the engagement process issues and the merits of the scheme in general.

The Committee although agreeing that no further action was necessary asked that it be kept informed on the progress of the consultation and implementation of the scheme and

RESOLVED:  That officers should commit to extend the phase 3 consultation as much as realistically possible so that everyone who wished to contribute could contribute at a proper stage of the process.