Issue - meetings

1.         That Cabinet notes and carefully considers the feedback received for the South Fulham (West) Clean Air Neighbourhood trial carried out from the time the experimental traffic management order detailed in the body of this report was made on 14th December 2022 (“ the Trial”)  in addition to the independent polling analysis (Appendix 1 and Appendix 2), alongside the data collected as part of the trial.

2.         That Cabinet approves the consulting and publication of the proposal to make  a permanent traffic management order for the South Fulham (West) Clean Air Neighbourhood project (as detailed in the section Permanent Order based on the Trial ) and delegates authority to the Strategic Director of Environment in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Public Realm to consider the responses received and make and publish the making of the permanent order  along with any necessary associated highway works subject to the outcome of the statutory consultation process.

3.         That Cabinet approves the publication of an experimental traffic order to implement further vehicle restrictions in Clancarty Road and Settrington Road (as detailed in the section New Experimental Order identified during the Trial) along with any necessary associated highway works.

4.         That Cabinet gives authority to the Strategic Director of Environment in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Public Realm to take all necessary steps to affect the decisions in recommendations 2 and 3.

Councillor Sharon Holder, Cabinet Member for Public Realm, introduced the report highlighting that the South Fulham (West) Clean Air Neighbourhood trial had been developed with residents and aimed to promote healthy living by protecting people from toxic air which could lead to serious health conditions. The trial intended to reduce congestion and pollution and used smart number plate technology to discourage out-of-borough motorists, who were not shopping in the area or visiting friends and family, from using residential streets as cut-throughs.

Cabinet received eleven valid deputations for this item. With the Leader’s permission each representative was permitted to address Cabinet for 5 minutes. The main points highlighted by each deputation were:

1. David Tarsh

• He said he was against the Clean Air Neighbourhood (CAN) scheme being made permanent as he believed the supporting information on the report was misleading.
• He said the Council’s data showed that air quality in South Fulham was not a problem even before the trial.
• He said the scheme did not have public support, had divided the local community, endangered businesses, and harmed people’s livelihoods.
• He believed the Opinium survey was not transparent on their questions.
• He believed streets should be free for everyone to use. By reducing traffic in certain streets it also reduced customers and pushed traffic elsewhere.

2. Caroline Shuffrey

• She said that visitors exemptions were issued using RingGo, which was not fit for purpose and had negatively impacted the community. She felt this issue had to be resolved before implementing the scheme.
• She said she had spent many hours explaining to residents how to use RingGo and helping them to appeal when fines had been issued. She said residents found the process very stressful and inefficient, and put off some people from using the system entirely. As the Cabinet report highlighted, only 300 visitor permits were issued each month, in an area covering a large number of residents.
• She stated that comparisons of all data 22 vs 23 (not just RingGo data) had no sensible meaning and could not be used to indicate success of the trial due to the high number of Coronavirus cases in 2022.
• She said that visitors without a permit coming from the West could not turn right along New Kings Road and were forced to divert their journey, increasing it considerably.
• She said that private hire vehicles wound not enter the trial area to drop-off or pick-up passengers to avoid fines, forcing women to walk home at night.
• She was in favour of a coordinated attempt to reduce traffic but that would need improvement to public transport and Government support.
• She had started a petition requesting consultation on the South Fulham CAN scheme that had raised over 12,100 signatories, showing many people were against the scheme.

3. Neil McCarroll

• He said he was the owner of a local business and was concerned about the negative effect on all businesses due to the implementation of CAN around Wandsworth Bridge Road.
• He said that his area was first introduced to the scheme  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7