Referendum to get rid of Walthamstow's LTNs
(Running time: 17 minutes 34 seconds)
What is the Mini-Hollands programme?
It began in 2014 with a load of hype:
The Mini-Hollands programme is part of the Mayor's Healthy Streets approach. Substantial investment – around £100 million – is helping three outer London boroughs transform into cycling hubs, equipped with high specification Dutch-style infrastructure. Changes include redesigned junctions that are safer for cyclists and pedestrians, segregated cycle lanes on busy roads and reductions in the amount of traffic using residential streets.
This investment aims to make these boroughs as cycle-friendly as their Dutch equivalents – where more than half of all journeys are made by bike in some cities – so that more Londoners can choose to cycle. All road users will benefit from improvements to streets and better facilities for pedestrians.
Mini-Hollands will encourage more people to cycle more safely and more often, while providing better streets and outdoor spaces for everyone. The programme will specifically target people who make short car journeys in outer London which could be cycled easily instead.
From the council's website
Six years later how does the reality compare to the designers' aspirations? A spokesperson for One Walthamstow as well as describing the effects of the scheme tells us of the council's suppression of dissent and falsification of the results of so-called "consultations" in order to retain the scheme in the face of all protest, as well as the millions of pounds extorted from motorists every year in Penalty Charge Notice fees harvested by various kinds of entrapment.
Listen to the account above to learn what life is really like behind the roadblocks.