Reform UK has been labelled “utterly clueless about how to run a council” and accused of “pandering to the terminally online” after the Nigel Farage-led party pledged to remove all low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) from the areas it now controls – only for the local authorities themselves to confirm that they do not, in fact, currently have any of the traffic-calming schemes in place.

Last week, Reform UK’s chair Zia Yusuf promised to enact a “large-scale reversal” of existing LTNs, and block attempts to install new ones, in the 10 council areas in England where the right-wing populist party won control following its victory at the local elections earlier this month.

By limiting through traffic, via ANPR cameras or physical bollards, LTNs prevent rat-running through residential roads and promote active journeys on foot or by bike, all with the aim of reducing pollution, creating a safer environment for local residents, and improving public health.

They have, however, been controversial in some communities and on social media, attracting protests and, in some cases, vandalism, with critics claiming they lead to traffic displacement and congestion on boundary roads.

Parsonage Road LTN planters, Manchester
Parsonage Road LTN planters, Manchester (Image Credit: Love Withington Streets)

“LTNs have proliferated too quickly and there are far too many of them,” Yusuf, whose party campaigned against the schemes in the run-up to the local elections, told the Telegraph last week.

“We view these schemes with the same suspicion as mass immigration and Net Zero. They are policies which are supported by and made to benefit more affluent people, who are then insulated from the negative consequences.

“You can expect, if you live in a Reform council, for there to be a much higher bar for any proposals for LTNs and for the large-scale reversal of these existing LTNs.”

Yusuf also said that the 10 councils now under Reform’s control – Derbyshire, Doncaster, Durham, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, North Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, and West Northamptonshire – would soon become “islands of freedom for motorists, where people who want to use their cars are able to do so”.

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However, when approached by the Guardian, the 10 Reform-run councils all revealed that they do not have any LTNs in their areas.

When asked about the absence of LTNs under their control, despite their pledge to remove these non-existent schemes, a Reform spokesperson pointed to mapping data showing the proportion of roads within the council areas which are not open to through-traffic.

However, as noted by the Guardian, this would also count traditional, non-LTN roads closed to through traffic, such as cul-de-sacs and housing estates, established long before the Conservative government’s push to install the traffic-calming schemes from 2020.

“It is not known whether Reform plans to open these up as through routes,” the Guardian’s senior political correspondent Peter Walker said.

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With their plans to scrap LTNs have already proving a roaring success – considering there were none to begin with – Reform has also pledged to sack council staff working on climate change or diversity initiatives, telling Durham council employees last week that those with such roles should be “seeking alternative careers very, very quickly”.

However, like their LTN pledge, it’s unclear what real-world impact these words will have, with some councils, such as Lincolnshire, already confirming they do have any staff specifically assigned to diversity issues.

Oxford LTN (Oxford City Council)
Oxford LTN (Oxford City Council) (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

And Reform’s ill-fated anti-LTN messaging has prompted widespread ridicule from rival parties, who have accused Farage and his colleagues of “pandering to the terminally online”.

“This hollow pledge shows that Reform are completely shooting from the hip,” a Conservative source told road.cc on Thursday.

“They haven’t got a clue how to run a local council or deliver for local people and we’ll soon see the impact that will have on the people in those council areas.

“It’s clear with this pronouncement they’re more interested in pandering to the terminally online rather than working for the people they’re elected to represent.”

> Council workers embroiled in bitter LTN row offered wellbeing day off after “relentless hostility and anger” from residents opposing decision to “bulldoze through” plans for low traffic neighbourhood

“Reform are utterly clueless about how to run a council,” added a Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

“From councillors who won’t take up their seats to schemes that don’t exist, it’s clear that they don’t understand the needs of their communities.

“Now they have some power, they need to learn how to Google things first. The Liberal Democrats will be holding Reform’s feet to the fire and standing up for our communities.”

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With Reform’s rhetoric highlighting the challenges facing those seeking to implement LTNs and other similar schemes such as School Streets (which ban traffic outside schools at the start and end of the school day) Active Travel Commissioner Chris Boardman told the COP29 summit in November that he had been “involved in the emotional side of this at a local level”.

“We’ve been doing a lot of focus group work on what plays with people and we’ve spoken to them about it,” Boardman explained. “[Telling people] it’s worth £53 billion to the economy, they don’t care, I’m trying to pay my mortgage.

“But, when we talked about kids having transport independence and the ability to stay at after school clubs, suddenly they were leaning in and were really interested.

“We were talking about the same thing but we were talking to the outcomes that they could connect to.

“When you’re going to change the streetscape locally, don’t give it an acronym that people can disassociate from emotionally and learn to hate, like LTNs, for example. Call it a child safe zone. Then if you want to campaign against it, fine, but you’re campaigning against a child safe zone.

“It just changed the whole framing and people understand and realise why this difficult thing is happening.”

Reform’s “hollow” anti-LTN pledge also comes in the same week active travel groups published a report calling for the “most radical reforms to road safety since mandatory seat belts”, ahead of the Labour government’s highly anticipated release of its Road Safety Strategy.

The report, co-commissioned by the Bikeability Trust and Living Streets charities, recommended an immediate nationwide ban on pavement parking, default 20mph speed limits for motor vehicles in all urban areas, enshrining mandatory cycle training into the national curriculum, and spending at least 10 per cent of transport funding on cycling and walking.