Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Life on Green Lanes Boundary: 2 years into the LTNs
I’ve lived on Green Lanes for a while now, and I wondered how other 'boundary road' residents are doing. While I understand the goal of the LTNs was to reduce traffic on side streets, the reality here on the main road has become incredibly difficult.
Two years on, the congestion outside my door feels constant. More worryingly, my asthma has significantly flared up recently, and I can’t help but link it to the idling engines and poor air quality we’re now facing daily.
Does anyone know if there are updated air quality monitoring reports for Green Lanes specifically for 2025/2026? And for those living on boundary roads, how are you coping? I’d love to know if there are any active resident groups focusing on the health impacts for those of us who weren't 'filtered'.
Tags for Forum Posts: traffic
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jamie Harper
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Hi Jane
The testing before, during, and after the changes has been quite poor on a number of levels. Much of the 'data' presented is fraught with limitations, making any real assessment for individuals quite difficult. I would suggest relying on your own senses and the signals your body is giving you. To that end, one very good way of coping is to have an air purifier in your home. They needn't be hugely expensive, and most independent research shows that many high-end purifiers do little more than some of the cheapest.
Take a look at the reddit page https://www.reddit.com/r/AirPurifiers/Brands such as Levoit and even the Ikea range have good 'value for money' recommendations, but there are equally effective (if less stylish) solutions for under £50.
Not what you were asking, but hope it helps.
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Permalink Reply by Jane Roberts
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Thanks for the thoughtful purifier recommendation, Jamie.
I know in Streatham they managed to get the LTNs stopped, apparently due to increased asthma and also photographs of buses jammed in the traffic.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh
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Thanks for the post. It's a useful reminder to use all that shoving traffic on to Green Lanes because it's 'not a residential road' is a nonsense. I'm sorry to hear that you're suffering. I have it in mind that there are some monitoring results. Let's see if we can find out.
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Thanks, Hugh, I appreciate the support!
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I'm afraid that I'm not getting very far. One person I asked who would know if there was anything to know told me, "I have got nowhere on this with the council, officers or councillors, or others I have tried to engage with. Really sorry. I honesty do not know what to do on this! Council just do not care..."
There's a Harringay Ladder Healthy Streets WA group I can link you to, if you like.
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Much of the monitoring and measurement of air quality has stopped in Haringey and more locally in Harringay.
For example. there used to be several diffusion tube monitors for N02 along GL (Colina, Endymion, Salisbury Promenade, St Ann's). Now there is just one at 572 GL (just up from St Ann's intersection). It's the only one that has ever produced 'official' data that was signed off by the GLA. It provides monthly readings, but the data is only released annually... about six months after the end of the year, So, the most recent data available is for 2024.
Since 2018 the annual N02 level has decreased 21% at the GL site compared with a London-wide roadside decline of 38% over the same period.
The others were part of a one year trial, run by BreatheLondon. I think this ended around 22/23. Breathe also briefly supplied the monitors for both of the Ladder schools. These included monitoring of particulate matter (PM2.5). That funding ended around the time the school streets decisions were confirmed.I believe there are three monitoring stations in the borough that give hourly readings of NO2. None near here. The closest is on Wood Green High road. It is also the only official site for PM 2.5 data in the borough.
N02 concentrations has been in steep decline for decades now. But the the same can't be said for the more harmful particulate pollution. About 30% comes from road transport but 75% of that is non-exhaust. So brakes, tyre wear, road abrasion.
Air pollution is hugely complex and readings from one side of a road, from street level to 2nd floor, from day to day can vary by a huge degree. The simplistic arguments presented by many LTN campaigners were emotional rather than empirical. "Why do you hate children?", "Don't you want to save the World". They ignored the nature of air pollution, its many sources, and the realities of how tinkering with LTNs was going to affect their neighbours.
Essentially, the monitoring was used to justify the LTNs. Once they were in place, the pretence of air quality being a significant driver of the initiatives 'dispersed' like the pollutants. They will now tell us that 'we never said it was about air pollution'. Much like they have disavowed the 'safety' and 'health and wellbeing' justifications once the data failed to back them.All this said, it is possible that they only way to get the council to sort out the GL and Ladder traffic is to use the same tactics as the earlier LTN campaigners. I suspect the council wont buy into the idea of more pollution monitors though as it could help build a case against them. What really needs to happen is for all of the surrounding 'gates' to be opened and for everyone start again.
https://www.airqualityengland.co.uk/local-authority/?la_id=196
https://haringey.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2025-10/air-quality-ann...
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Ah, thanks Jamie for this informative response. I thought I'd written to Catherine West and the Council before but I can't find the emails. I'll try again. Do you have any other ideas of what to do?
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Thanks, Hugh, if the LHS WA group are interested in having people on the Lanes (not the ladder), then yes, please.
I tried writing to various people (I think the email addresses were Parking Services, Smarter Travel and Common Place) around the times of the LTN consultations, and I got absolutely nowhere.
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It’s worth remembering that the St Ann’s LTN was supported by only 700 people in the original vote, egged on by a tiny but vocal pressure group encouraged by the now-departed Councillor Mike Hakata, whose promises to put in “mitigation” measures for GL before the LTN went live were predictably unfulfilled. Whatever LTN advocates maintained, shunting more traffic from side streets onto already overcrowded main roads always looked like a really bad idea, and Jane’s experience may well bear this out.
However, in Tower Hamlets the mayor’s election pledge to reverse three LTNs — as being contrary to the interests of poorer people and public transport users — has just been defeated in the Appeal Court (on the grounds that he couldn’t overrule plans originally imposed by TfL), even though he’d won at first instance in the High Court; TH have said they’ll go to the Supreme Court if allowed, but it appears unlikely that they’d be any more successful there. So it seems improbable that opening the barriers to reverse Haringey’s block of LTNs closing side roads all along the eastern side of GL would be feasible, for similar reasons.
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Thanks for this info, Don. It's all just so unfair--but typical of how things work generally, I suppose.
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Permalink Reply by Grand Parader
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Hi Jane - really good you posted. And sorry to hear you're experiencing worse breathing /increased asthma.
My perception is that I'd been experiencing progressively cleaner air on the street (Grand Parade in particular) - having lived on Grand Parade since the 80's and been a cyclist all that time, and a spell of buggy-pushing to local schools, the seemingly massive drop in diesel exhaust has been the biggest change - buses, taxis - all electric now, and a fair proportion of cars. The taste of diesel exhaust on your tongue is largely gone when cycling up the street. BUT interesting what Jamie says about brakes, tyre wear, road abrasion being a major part of particulates.
Reliable monitoring & statistics would be really useful as I'm not experiencing Grand Parade/Green Lanes traffic as being much different to any years/decades before. It's usually/often been a crawl. The minute it's less congested, cars/vans are moving faster, and it feels much less safe for cyclists and pedestrians (me at least).
Anyway I hope you find some relief for your asthma. I am also going to look at air purifiers - as all Grand Paraders get a lot of airborne dust from Green Lanes.
And for the record, there are likely 1500-2000 residents living above the shops, Harringay bridge > The Salisbury - usually missed out from Harringay residential campaigns /discussions.
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