A legal challenge opposing the roll out of low traffic neighbourhood schemes in the London Borough of Lambeth due to their apparent adverse impacts on disabled people has been dismissed by the High Court.
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The case was brought by a disabled resident of the borough, who lives on the boundary of one of the experimental schemes introduced during the pandemic and relies on her car due to restricted mobility.
She argued that displacement of vehicles from within low traffic neighbourhoods to roads outside them has resulted in a build up of congestion, increasing journey times and worsening air and noise pollution.
The borough overlooked this impact in the course of developing its thinking and failed to comply with the public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010, the resident claimed, rendering three of Lambeth’s LTNs unlawful.
However Lambeth Council disputed this and maintained that it complied with all of its legal obligations in the course of deciding to make the traffic orders for the low traffic neighbourhoods.
In the High Court, Mr Justice Kerr dismissed the resident’s claim and decided that it was lawful for the local authority to perform its public sector equality duty by continuing to monitor the impact of the schemes on disabled people. The claimant was given permission to appeal.
Lambeth Council leader Claire Holland welcomed the judgment and said: “The council has set out from the outset that implementing measures to make our streets safer and healthier was fully in line with statutory guidance and national policy objectives. We rejected any suggestion that these schemes are discriminatory in any way or were installed illegally.
“We’re glad that the judgement is clear on that, and particularly that considerations of equality were accounted for at the earliest stage of the LTN. The judgement also reinforces our approach of continuing to consider those objectives using data collected throughout the experimental period, ensuring that the impacts on those most at risk remains front and centre of our approach.”
She added: “We will now redouble our efforts to involve all of our communities in a conversation about how we rebalance our streets so that they are more equal, safer and put people first.”
The court ruling comes as Lambeth this week joins London’s rental electric scooters trial, with vehicles now available to hire in northern parts of the borough. The City of London has also made scooters available to rent for the first time, and people are now allowed to ride them in Southwark.
The trial initially launched in June covering a core area including Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea, Richmond, Tower Hamlets and Canary Wharf.
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