Haringey's exceptional circumstances exemptions policy for Lower Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) 

Our lived experience of lower traffic neighbourhoods in around the 2 sites of our son's school in Islington tell us hell on earth is about to arrive.

Road to nowhere: It has been hellish getting to and from medical appointments stuck in traffic and breathing in the awful traffic fumes in the gridlock around our son's school on Prebend Street, Islington.

Cost: The  increased cost of increasingly scarce London Black Cab Taxis (a drop from 19 odd thousand to just over 13 and a half thousand cabs in 2 years) is hitting our pocket - and this is before the April fare rise and the impact of the fuel crisis hitting cabbies.

Black Cab Taxis are an essential part of the public transport system in London. They are fully wheelchair accessible, unlike all other forms of public transport and are driven by professional drivers who are trained and selected through a rigorous and world respected selection process, (unlike all other forms of public transport!).

Given that LTNs are supposed to reduce traffic, improve air quality and reduce road traffic accidents, do they actually work?

The road we live on is dead straight and between two proposed LTNs in Haringey. Would-be racing drivers already daily rat run at speed down our road. When this road becomes the only open and dead straight between two LTNs it is not unreasonable to assume that the rat running on the road will increase. At one end of the road is West Green Road, and the junction between the two already experiences congestion at busy times and this leads to stationary traffic pumping out air pollutants into the space between an increasing number of tall buildings.

Our fears are that the supposed benefits of LTNs will not be realised by the disabled people on our road. Given that the are many families with severely disabled family members who have been housed by Haringey in accessible houses on our road, it is essential that Haringey very carefully monitor for the adverse impacts of LTNs on these families. We would hope that they would carefully monitor for speeding cars, increased traffic and poorer air quality.

We have been told that 'coproduction' means different things to different people. Therefore, it would be a good idea to explain to people at the beginning of each meeting what the 'coproduction' for the meeting or project will be.

We asked for an air quality monitor for our house - the council said no. We think our concerns are legitimate and real. This is because of our experience of LTNs in Islington. But our suggestion of a monitor to help ease our fears that our health and quality of life in our own home and when we are on our own street will get worse was not appropriately addressed.

So we asked for the data, all the data - not the sanitised summaries that the officers want us to focus on, to properly assure ourselves that the benefits of LTNs are actually realised, rather than a worsening of our quality of life already made worse by the LTNs around our son's school.

We attended the 3rd and 4th workshops of 4 exceptional circumstances exemptions workshops. We had no idea that there had been another 2 events already and this makes us wonder how people find out about these workshops. 

Coproduction opportunities need to be clearly set out on the Haringey website and open to everyone - not just a self selected few who happen to belong to certain 'in favour with the council' groups.

It was truly fascinating and informative listening to other disabled people and their views of LTNs. Concerns raised included

• How will the exemptions work?
• Will we have to apply for an exemption for each LTN?
• Will we have to apply for an LTN exemption for every borough?
• How much admin and evidence will this involve for disabled people?
• Who will be exempt?
• Will ambulances be exempt? Will hospital passenger transport, including taxis?
• Will carers, physiotherapists, wheelchair technicians and the army of people who support disabled people be exempt?

Now I know that there are people who are not used to the army of people who support disabled people who are likely screaming at the internet saying yes they can get to YOUR home but make journeys through LTNs, so whats the issue?!.

But given the shortage of people who work in the health and care sector, any increase in journey times to and from clients can potentially delay a disabled person getting the help they need, increase travel times and travel costs and reduce the number of 'clients' a health care person can see in a day. Many people with very complex needs see specialists who come from all over the country.  The person who looks after our wheelchair is based in Norfolk and his 'patch' is north of the Thames to Northumberland.

We most certainly are not rich and when our cabby on Wednesday told us of the fare hike due in April we said, no bother, we just spend our money on our son, that's it.

But our journeys are already longer and are already more expensive due to LTNs. There is a lack of taxis, few drivers training to be cabbies and less and less black cabs on the road.

Two weeks ago we saw a rep about getting our own wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV). The WAV we saw was too small for our wheelchair and anyway we were told the delivery time is 18 months. We already had to was 48 weeks for our disability benefit to be processed (Personal Independence Payment are used to pay for Motobility cars). In addition to this, there are still no electric WAVs.

We face a future locked in, and in a home on a street with increasingly poor air quality.

When there is so much hassle for the people to get about around London to care for disabled people and transport disabled people, we fear that they are just going to jack it in and do something that's less bother.