Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Gridlocked roads around Wood Green / Ally Pally / Muswell Hill
What’s happened to traffic management in Haringey? Multiple temp lights/roadworks across area has brought traffic to standstill. Why isn’t the council managing closures more effectively?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter
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There are too many cars. Few are prepared to admit this simple truth. And least of all, the Highwaymen at Haringey Council.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson
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To add to it all the was a traffic accident somewhere the vicinity too. It took a friend an hour and a half to get to my house on the Ladder from Muswell Hill by bus yesterday afternoon.
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Permalink Reply by AndrewAW1
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Specifically yesterday evening rush hour there was an accident on the North Circular so the sat nav alternative route is to direct down through Muswell Hill, etc
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Permalink Reply by Brian
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Plus there were roadworks on Park Road between Crouch End and Muswell Hill. On the occasions I passed I did not see anyone working (or even present.) Though the temporary traffic lights resulted in very long tailbacks in either direction.
The LTNs have bottlenecked traffic along the boundary roads preventing traffic from dispersing holistically through adjoining roads as was the case prior to their introduction -adding additional miles, time and pollution. Haringey Council ignored the results of their consultation which clearly showed a majority of local residents did not want the LTNs to be made permanent. They made them permanent.
Traffic congestion in the borough is not a priority for Haringey Council (nor the negative commercial impact viz Myddleton Road) but rather the generation of £££s. Following a Freedom of Information request I discovered that, in the two and two thirds years since their introduction, the LTNs had generated £42,000,000 in fines for the Council
Cash-strapped Haringey is not going to willingly give up this source of revenue.
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That's an awful lot of drivers incapable of reading very obvious road signs. Or just oblivious or deliberately law breaking. None of these options are good ones. And there are sadly no new LTNs on Muswell Hill or Crouch End and neither adjoins the new ones on the East of the borough so "holistically" using them to escape adjoining roads is a geographic nonsense.
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See attachment below showing a case where an LTN fine was overturned by the independent adjudicator (the appeal having been rejected by Haringey Council) as the signage was clearly inadequate.
Many drivers will not go to the bother of contesting fines deciding merely to 'put up and shut up:' hence it is reasonable to assume that many fines were improperly issued. No-one deliberately breaks the law knowing that Haringey Council will then hit them with a substantial fine. (Unlike Rachel Reeves' failure to comply with regulations those who contravene LTN regs are never given the benefit of the doubt and let off.)
You are, presumably, aware of the 'butterfly' effect where seemingly inconsequential events in one area can 'snowball' to have a huge impact in other areas. That is the effect of the LTNs.
I cite the case quoted above:
"To add to it all the was a traffic accident somewhere the vicinity too. It took a friend an hour and a half to get to my house on the Ladder from Muswell Hill by bus yesterday afternoon."
There is a good distance between the Ladder and Muswell hill and yet congestion occurred along this stretch.
I proposed to Haringey Council that the LTNs be suspended for a six month trial period. Traffic flow and pollution levels could then be monitored. These would show if the LTNs were responsible for high levels of congestion / pollution. Unsurprisingly I never received a reply. (I rarely do from Haringey Council.)
Haringey issues 'consultations' and then ignores the responses. Their only motivation is £££.
Local elections in May 2026.
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Please see attached file: Overturned LTN fine.
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Overturned LTN fine. .pdf, 119 KB
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Great - at which I fully expect no anti-LTN candidates to get in, just like in by elections and other local elections in London across the boroughs with LTNs.
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Permalink Reply by Paul K
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£42m??? Are you sure? That’s the equivalent of over 13% of the general budget, which seems improbable. Or put it another way, at £60 per FPN that’s 700,000 tickets or nearly 3 each for every man woman and child. So it seems like you’re making things up!
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These are the figures supplied by Haringey Council in response to my Freedom of Information request earlier this year.
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Have you got a link to that, curious if it has any more detail as it does seem high.
I had a look on https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/ but couldn't spot anything on there.
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