When the Tory minister Greg Hands criticised a trial scheme in his constituency to block the use of residential roads as rat runs, he might have expected to win some votes and boost his party’s pro-car agenda.
Instead, he finds himself embroiled in a charged and divisive debate in his Chelsea and Fulham constituency, with a backlash from some Tories who back measures to curb traffic and introduce clean-air neighbourhoods.
Nick Smith, a resident in the constituency, said: “I cut up my Conservative party membership card about a year ago and sent it to Conservative central office. It is because of this single issue.”
Smith said the clean-air neighbourhood in which he lived was transformed: “You would previously open your door at 6.30am to be confronted with a queue of traffic. Cars would be hooting and people would jump out, swearing and arguing.”
The Chelsea and Fulham constituency has a new boundary at the next election and is a Labour target. Winning the seat would represent the point at which it would become the largest party in a hung parliament, according to a recent analysis.
Clean-air traffic schemes implemented by Hammersmith and Fulham council do not block the streets but instead deploy enforcement cameras to prevent out-of-borough cars using smaller residential roads as rat runs. It has angered some businesses who say it has led to a fall in trade, but is supported by many residents.A South Fulham east neighbourhood project was made permanent in December 2021. The council published a report on Friday proposing a similar trial scheme introduced in February 2023, known as the South Fulham west project, be made permanent.
Average traffic flows lower on residential roads and some main arterial roads between March 2022, before the trial, and March 2023 during it.
The market research agency Opinium polled residents in the trial area: 59% supported reducing out-of-borough traffic using neighbourhood streets as cut-throughs. The polling firm also conducted an online consultation of residents and businesses in the borough: 52% of respondents supported the principle of reducing out-of-borough traffic using neighbourhood streets as cut-throughs, and 59% of businesses were opposed.
Hands, a trade minister and minister for London, said his own survey published last year found 70% of residents do not support the schemes. He said he had been contacted by many businesses and residents about the impact on the area. “Businesses say no one want to come to them any more because they spend too long in traffic.”
Hands said he did not own a car and used public transport in the borough, but considered the scheme was ill-thought out and the council should “go back to the drawing board”. He said he doubted whether people would vote at the general election on their views on traffic schemes.
A Hammersmith and Fulham council spokesperson said : “The trial was developed by residents. It set out to end a decades-old congestion and pollution problem in the streets around Wandsworth Bridge Road that had been exacerbated by the increased use of sat-nav equipment by motorists.”
• The headline of this article was amended on 25 February 2024 because an earlier version referred to the scheme as being in Chelsea whereas it is in Fulham.
