Mount Pleasant Lane and Southwold Road LTN

We are committed in our Transport Strategy to make Hackney’s roads safer for everyone living, working and visiting the borough. We aim to create an environment that will encourage more walking and cycling, improve air quality and reduce emissions in the borough. For further background to these measures, see the About the project page. To find out more about how we're maintaining access to properties, why we're acting so quickly and more, visit our Frequently Asked Questions page

In the Springfield Road/Mount Pleasant Lane area, we know that at certain times levels of non-local through-traffic are too high. Given lockdown restrictions remain subject to change, and public transport capacity remains well below pre-lockdown levels, it is important that we support everyone - including the 70% of Hackney households that do not own a car - to walk and cycle instead.

There is also a risk that, as public transport use remains low, car use will return to or exceed pre-lockdown levels or above, with the associated effect this will have on road safety and air quality. We need to act quickly to make roads safer for walking and cycling as well as maintain social distancing at the school gates.

This is in line with the Department for Transport guidance on implementing measures to support walking and cycling in the wake of the pandemic, which states that: “Measures should be taken as swiftly as possible, and in any event within weeks, given the urgent need to change travel habits before the restart takes full effect”.

To tackle some of the issues we have described, we have introduced the following measures:

● a type of road closure known as a traffic filter - where planters or bollards on the road prevent motor vehicles from passing through - on Mount Pleasant Lane

● a left turn restriction from Southwold Road to Upper Clapton Road.

● a School Street for Harrington Hill Primary School

A traffic filter is a type of road closure that uses planters or bollards on the road to prevent motor vehicles from passing through.

From Monday 9 November 2020, a filter is located at the junction of Springfield Gardens and Mount Pleasant Lane (see map below). General traffic is not permitted to pass through the traffic filter, from either direction, at any time of the day. Cyclists, emergency vehicles and some service vehicles such as waste collection is exempt from this 24 hour restriction.

At Southwold Road, a left turn restriction at the junction of Upper Clapton Road prevents most vehicles, other than buses, from turning left onto Upper Clapton Road from Southwold Road. This is to reduce the number of vehicles using the neighbourhood to bypass traffic lights on Upper Clapton Road. This 24 hour restriction is also operational from Monday 9 November. Cyclists, emergency vehicles and refuse vehicles are still able to turn left.

The traffic filter and turning restrictions are indicated with signage and road markings (see map below). The traffic filter has been installed using solid planters on either side of the road to reduce the carriageway width, but allowing enough space for cyclists, emergency vehicles and refuse vehicles to go through. Signs and road markings make it clear that regular vehicles cannot pass through. The traffic filter is enforced by a camera in order to deter vehicles driving through.

School Streets are schemes where the road(s) outside of a school is closed to most vehicles during school opening and closing times, helping children walk or cycle to school safely.

From Monday 9 November, Mount Pleasant Lane, from its junction with Bakers Hill to the road closure at Springfield Gardens, including Harrington Hill, became a School Street (see map below). Vehicles approaching from the direction of Bakers Hill are not able to enter the zone between 8:30-9:30am and 3:00-4:00pm, Monday to Friday, unless they have been granted an exemption for this School Street. The Pedestrian and Cycle zone does not operate on weekends or during school holidays. Signage will be erected at the entrance points to the zone, informing drivers of the restrictions.

Residents and businesses inside the School Street zone (Mount Pleasant Lane between Springfield Gardens to Bakers Hill, including all of Harrington Hill) are eligible for an exemption from the School Streets restriction and are therefore able to access their properties at all times from the direction of Bakers Hill.

Residents and businesses who are exempt from the School Streets restriction are not able to drive through the LTN filter at the junction of Springfield Gardens and Mount Pleasant Lane and therefore their route to their properties will be via Warwick Grove and Leaside Road.

Public notices advising the changes have been displayed in the streets prior to implementation.

To have your say on the Harrington Hill Primary School Street, please provide your feedback under the school streets section .

These schemes were being introduced using experimental traffic orders for a maximum period of 18 months, which means you can see how they work in practice before having your say.

To have your say on the Harrington Hill Primary School Street, please provide your feedback under the school streets section .

The views of residents and businesses, including any suggested changes to how the scheme operates, will be taken into account before any decision on whether or not to make the measures permanent. This process is in line with specific guidance from Transport for London, and the Department for Transport, whose guidance states that: 'authorities should monitor and evaluate any temporary measures they install, with a view to making them permanent, and embedding a long-term shift to active travel as we move from restart to recovery’.

The experimental traffic orders were advertised in the London Gazette and the Hackney Gazette on Thursday 1 October 2020.

You can have your say for up to six months after the measures have been implemented, until 10 May 2021. To have your say, please complete the survey below or email streetscene.consultations@hackney.gov.uk . You can also write to us by sending your comments to ‘Freepost Streetscene’.