Comments like those GB News presenter Mark Dolan made during his Saturday night ‘Tonight’ programme used to be the preserve of ranting anonymous Twitter accounts and conspiracy theorists. However, with Conservative ‘red wall’ MP Nick Fletcher this week raising similar concerns in Parliament, it seems the 15-minute city ‘debate’ is going nowhere.

Addressing Don Valley MP Fletcher’s House of Commons words, Dolan delivered a six-minute-long 15-minute city monologue, working towards the punchline, “it took me less than 15 minutes to realise they are a terrible idea”.

Claiming the schemes — aimed at enabling active travel so many local amenities can be reached by bike or on foot within 15 minutes — are the creation of “creepy local authority bureaucrats” hoping to instil “a surveillance culture that would make Pyongyang envious”, Dolan worked through many of the ‘greatest hits’ of those who oppose the concept.

“These deeply illiberal, un-British 15-minute cities are beyond the pale,” he argued. “They’re hurting communities, hurting small businesses and they’ve got to go. And it didn’t take me 15 minutes to work that out.”

And while many who saw Dolan’s rant questioned on social media whether convenient access to shops without using a car is un-British, the segment also garnered a predictable stream of conspiratorial-minded replies too.

“Creepy local authority bureaucrats would like to see your entire existence boiled down to the duration of a quarter of an hour,” Dolan told GB News’ Saturday night viewers. “This dystopian plan in some of Britain’s most iconic towns and cities being blocked off, with cars being restricted to certain areas, all overseen by number plate recognition cameras installed everywhere, with a surveillance culture that would make Pyongyang envious.

ANPR protected LTN in LB Ealing
ANPR protected LTN in LB Ealing (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

“Many consider this idea laudable – 15-minute cities make everything walkable. You can go by foot to grab a coffee, do your grocery shopping, have a pint. And if you don’t fancy walking, everything you need is just a five-minute bicycle ride away. Lovely.

“Fans of this scheme say it will deal with traffic and congestion and make life easier, more convenient and sustainable for locals. Except that as the MP Nick Fletcher, who has raised the question about this in parliament points out, these low-traffic neighbourhoods are having an impact on small businesses, given the lack of passing trade they now receive.”

Earlier this week, Fletcher told the House of Commons that 15-minute cities are an “international socialist concept” which “take away our personal freedom” and “destroy our towns and cities and keep us prisoners in our communities”, seemingly providing the inspiration for Dolan’s rant.

> Tory MP attacks 15-minute city concept with known conspiracy theory

The MP’s comments were fact-checked by Reuters’ Nick Hardinges and prompted Oxford City Council to insist that in the case of its scheme “no filters will ‘trap’ residents… they’re points on a road, not a ‘zone’. People living on roads near them can enter & leave via other roads ANY time without a permit”.

However, Dolan’s ‘Take at Ten’ did not seem concerned with this, instead accusing the schemes of “crushing enterprise” and being an “unprecedented assault on how we go about living our lives – allowing the state to control your movements by car”.

“It genuinely feels like a policy that would happen in mainland China, not Sheffield, Canterbury, Bristol or that great seat of western enlightenment, Oxford,” he continued. “How shameful that any of this should happen in Britain, the home of liberal democracy, the home of free speech, the home of individual self-determination.

“People aren’t stupid. Most people don’t use cars unnecessarily – they get behind the wheel when they need to get somewhere, perhaps taking people with them – dropping the kids off to school, or a builder with colleagues in the back, or taking tools to a job.

> Levels of motor traffic nearly halved within London LTNs, new study finds

“During the pandemic, when the likes of myself and others warned that we were setting a precedent, allowing the state to encroach so much on our lives, controlling our movements to ‘stop Covid’, we were labelled mad conspiracy theorists. 

Salford LTN (via Sustrans)
Salford LTN (via Sustrans) (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

“Well, state overreach is now the norm and these 15-minute cities, low-traffic neighbourhoods and ULEZ zones are just another example. I’m sorry, but in a free country, you ought to be able to get in a car and drive wherever you like. But that freedom is already starting to feel like a distant memory.”

Criticism of 15-minute cities has become popular among high-profile right-wing figures such as Laurence Fox and Katie Hopkins, while in December Nigel Farage warned that “climate change lockdowns” are coming. With Fletcher and Dolan’s comments reaching the House of Commons and right-wing media, it seems we can expect plenty more still to come.

This week, police in Bethnal Green, East London, urged Tower Hamlets Borough Council to not scrap a Liveable Streets scheme, saying that it has resulted in a reduction in antisocial behaviour-related crime.

The appeal was made in their response to a consultation into removing the low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN) scheme around Arnold Circus, on the fringes of the popular night-time area of Shoreditch.

Arnold Circus LTN (via Bob From Accounts on Twitter)
Arnold Circus LTN (via Bob From Accounts on Twitter) (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

The police response, posted to Twitter as a screenshot by the Clean Bethnal Green account, highlighted that antisocial behaviour had fallen by more than a third in the six months after the LTN was put in place, compared to the preceding six months, and warned that removing could see levels of crime, as well as road danger rise.