LTNs and us - how Haringey council failed to keep their coproduction promises again
- By Brian Leveson
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- 24 Aug, 2022
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Its the same old sorry story when it comes to Haringey working with residents - The street we live on links the boundary roads of 2 Lower Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) and we are already seeing an increase in traffic.
St Ann's LTN came into force 22nd August 2022
There seems to be 6 times more traffic on our road already, with only one LTN introduced and another on the way
Prompted by a seemingly large increase in the number of vehicles passing by our house now the St Ann's LTN kicked in on Monday, I thought I'd do my own quick experiment on the traffic flow on our road through a 'random sampling' of the data on our doorbell cam. I took random one minute intervals between 11am and 2pm over Monday and Tuesday this week and compared then to data collected last week and the week before, before the LTN kicked in.
What I found was
I accept wholly the limitations of the scientific rigor of this 'experiment'
What I found was
- Before the LTNs - somewhere between 0 and 2 cars flowed passed the doorbell cam in a minute
- Introduction of one LTN - there are now up to 6 cars passing in a minute
- There is still another LTN to be introduced in the next few weeks - what impact will it have? Who is considering that impact?
I accept wholly the limitations of the scientific rigor of this 'experiment'
No mitigation at all of the impacts of the 2 LTNs schemes on particularly vulnerable residents
Our road is in the unenviable position of
not being in an LTN,
not being a boundary road but an enticing rat run for anyone struck on the St Ann's LTN 'boundary road' West Green Road and the Bruce Grove LTN 'boundary road' Philip Lane.
There has been no mitigation whatsoever for the impact of the introduction of the LTNs on the road. We warned the Haringey Highways Department of our concerns during the 2 "consultation" meetings (their word, not mine) with the Joint Partnership Board (JPB), hosted by Public Voice, particularly the impact of the schemes on sick and disabled residents housed in the specially adapted social housing 'life time homes' on our road.
Mitigation might have included, but not been limited to:
There has been no mitigation whatsoever for the impact of the introduction of the LTNs on the road. We warned the Haringey Highways Department of our concerns during the 2 "consultation" meetings (their word, not mine) with the Joint Partnership Board (JPB), hosted by Public Voice, particularly the impact of the schemes on sick and disabled residents housed in the specially adapted social housing 'life time homes' on our road.
Mitigation might have included, but not been limited to:
- Monitoring of traffic flow through traffic counters
- Air quality monitors
- Transparent publication of data collected
- Traffic calming measures on our road
- Consideration of the impacts when providing council services e.g. SEND Transport using the Bus Stand instead of dangerously parking on a crossroads in the middle of Lawrence Road(!)
How were issues raised in the consultation addressed?
We have blogged previously about the lack of transparency during the consultation and coproduction phases of this work which have left many feeling undervalued. The behaviours of officers have included:
- Not responding to requests for clarification of the processes and purposes of the work (See our blog: https://www.difficultparent.com/i-don-t-believe-you-ltns-exemption-policy)
- Sending a multi-paged report on the exemptions policy to the Joint Partnership Board of disabled Haringey residents and their carers with less then 24 hours to respond
- Not demonstrating how they meaningfully considered feedback, lack of traffic monitoring / calming on our road being a good example of this.
Blaming residents for a lack of coproduction
In the Amaze report published in 2020, Haringey Officers tried to blame the parents of disabled children for the lack of coproduction, although that was not the conclusion of the reports authors who found there was a lack of systems, culture and practice within Haringey to support coproduction.
Blaming residents, who freely give up their time, good will and expertise to help codesign and coproduce deliver effective, efficient and economic services that meet needs shows a callous disregard for the vulnerable residents of Haringey and their carers. Many, if not all the residents I heard in the JPB meetings with Haringey Highways had experience well beyond that of the knowledge displayed by the highways team. In our experience, that is exactly where a big part of the problem with coproduction lies. Residents are experts of many decades experience of issues that the officers are not capable of understanding and there is a skill set there that is quite simply missing - the ability to take feedback and transform it into effective solutions, especially when dismissing concerns or refusing to acknowledge problems is the easier option. SEND parents are well versed in the laws and statutory guidance that governs the provision of services for their child, and more frequently than not, parents have a better understanding than officers, which was another finding of the Amaze report. It seems this issue is not limited to Children's Services in Haringey.
Residents are not to blame for the lack of coproduced services nor are they to blame for council services that fail to effectively, efficiently and economically meet needs. Council leaders, both political and officers, need to reflect on the process of 'coproduction' in this case and learn some lessons about
Blaming residents, who freely give up their time, good will and expertise to help codesign and coproduce deliver effective, efficient and economic services that meet needs shows a callous disregard for the vulnerable residents of Haringey and their carers. Many, if not all the residents I heard in the JPB meetings with Haringey Highways had experience well beyond that of the knowledge displayed by the highways team. In our experience, that is exactly where a big part of the problem with coproduction lies. Residents are experts of many decades experience of issues that the officers are not capable of understanding and there is a skill set there that is quite simply missing - the ability to take feedback and transform it into effective solutions, especially when dismissing concerns or refusing to acknowledge problems is the easier option. SEND parents are well versed in the laws and statutory guidance that governs the provision of services for their child, and more frequently than not, parents have a better understanding than officers, which was another finding of the Amaze report. It seems this issue is not limited to Children's Services in Haringey.
Residents are not to blame for the lack of coproduced services nor are they to blame for council services that fail to effectively, efficiently and economically meet needs. Council leaders, both political and officers, need to reflect on the process of 'coproduction' in this case and learn some lessons about
- Clarity of the purpose of coproduction - it seems quite disingenuous that officers that must have to work internally and externally with teams of professionals to produce services are somehow incapable of teamwork and good project management when it comes to working as part of a team with local residents
- Clarity and transparency regarding timelines
- Share documents in a timely fashion - share papers at least two weeks before meetings and at least 6 weeks for consultations.
- I've said all this before - as did the Amaze report
- Stop blaming vulnerable residents for local authority failings
Bruce Grove LTN will be in place from early September 2022
If you thought SEND was bad - the NHS is seemingly prepared to throw away money to private companies
About 3 or 4 times a year we get the euphemistic message 'Parents please note we have put a letter in your child's bag' - its a world away from how a child's death was handled in my child's first school
More of a trial by ordeal than a well organised clearly set out administrative process for moving the care of vulnerable young adults from Haringey's Children's Services to Adult Services. We have been failed at every stage of the process.
Never EVER get on the bus without a camera running if you need the priority wheelchair space
The reality of using a London Bus in the teeming rain on a Sunday afternoon is no joke when the parents of a paraplegic person in a wheelchair clash with the self-entitled buggy-pushing parents of toddlers.
At 3pm today I received some barefaced lies from Haringey Council Adult Social Care in response to a photograph I published online yesterday and the media interest it generated
Haringey SEND Transport are insisting that a 17 year old minibus with no air conditioning is a suitable vehicle to transport my paraplegic son in this heatwave. The appalling conditions inside the minibus inside the bus is something they knew about last summer, yet they have to date done nothing whatsoever provide a suitable minibus this year nor appropriately mitigate the temperatures inside the minibus.The conditions inside the minibus are so bad that they triggered multiple seizures during the heatwave as my son has epilepsy, which they SEND transport department know about and they also know that they are triggered by heat.It is not just son who is impacted: last year we know of one child who died on Haringey SEND Transport in the summer heatwave and another who had seizures.
I am simply asking a question - are we all absolutely certain that the road closure / travel restrictions (commonly know as LTNs) placed on some of the most severely disabled people who are wholly reliant on cars are absolutely necessary
Haringey's road closures exemptions policy for disabled people is not fit for purpose, unduly burdensome and intrusive - it's time to stand up against the pro-LTN lycra-clad cycling bullies
Is the argument for and against exemptions for disabled people in Low Traffic Neighbourhoods really a case of GOOD versus EVIL?
