Southwark Council has raked in 6.6 million pounds in one year from fining drivers in Dulwich’s Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN).
Drivers were slapped with more than 120,000 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) between January 11 to December 31 2021. This brought in an astronomical £6,623,517 for the council coffers.
PCNs are issued when drivers go down low-traffic roads where cars are banned, even if this happens accidentally. The fines are issued automatically by cameras monitoring traffic.
The eye-watering amount of fines was generated from five cameras located in Dulwich Village, Townley Road and Burbage Road.
One camera in Dulwich Village, northbound towards Pickwick Road, produced a staggering £3,892,194 in fines throughout 2021.
This was followed by another camera on the Townley Road Junction at Calton Avenue, which brought in £1,472,502 the same year.
“The fact that they [the council] are making so much money shows that the scheme is not working,” said Clive Rates, Conservative councillor candidate for Dulwich Village. “Traffic hasn’t evaporated as promised, otherwise there wouldn’t be all these fines. They [the council] never told us their aim was to create a cash cow, but they have ended up with one,” he added.
The council said the cameras were introduced to reduce through traffic in Dulwich, a “long-standing issue” for residents. “Enforcement is necessary to support the work that’s being done to improve air quality, road safety and accessibility,” said Cllr Catherine Rose, cabinet member for transport, parks and sport. “We want to help local people to reclaim their streets.”
Eighty per cent of fines were issued to vehicles not registered in Southwark said the councillor. “Local compliance has improved over the past two years and we have amended the times of the restrictions and improved signage for drivers as part of making the scheme permanent,” she added.
Dulwich’s LTN was first introduced in March 2020 amid the pandemic.
Clive also claimed the benefits of the scheme, such as encouraging cycling and reducing emissions, had not been proved by the council. “In practice, people have had to make longer journeys, and use roads that are already busy, which slows down buses and increases emissions. Traffic has been displaced to outside schools. This is the reason there is a great deal of anger out there about what has happened,” he said.
In response to allegations that the LTNs had not improved air quality, the council claimed it could not respond to the statement as it is “too general.”
“What evidence or air quality monitoring has been provided to support this statement – where are these certain areas?” they asked.
Another Conservative candidate for Dulwich, Tristan Honeyborne, alleged there was a lot of hostility to the scheme from locals. “On doorsteps, people are voicing their opposition [to the LTN] every single week,” said Tristan. “Some of the most affected people are the elderly and less mobile.”
He called on the council to reinvest the six million raised from fines into zero-carbon public transport, alongside improving pedestrian streets and road layouts, and do away with the LTN entirely.
Only five per cent of journeys in Dulwich are by public transport due to poor provision in the area, according to One Dulwich, a local anti-LTN campaign group. This means fewer people have the option of ditching their cars.
Tristan alleged the LTN had worsened bus times by diverting traffic onto longer routes and increasing congestion.
The council said they were creating “active travel routes to bus interchanges and train stations to make them more accessible. However, strategic investment is TfL’s responsibility,” they added.
It comes a week after the News reported that over £278,000 in fines were issued in just six months on Goldsmith Road in Peckham.