Forum Topic

Living in a parallel universe?

https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/news/article/2469/statement_from_the_leader_on_the_councils_low_traffic_neighbourhood_programme

Vanessa Smith ● 906d2 Comments

Like Ealing, Hounslow suffers from a vast amount of through traffic.That's non residential.They have no power to control that and to attempt to could seriously damage the economy as a whole.So they clutch at straws and pick on residents instead.Helped by TfL and a knee-jerk government they go for the lowest common denominator.And , as in so many of these initiatives is causes more trouble than it's worth and solves nothing.But the contempt for the residents, the inability to deal with many other failings where they could do much better is a disgrace.This will come back as a far bigger issue in elections than they expect.Mess with peoples livelihoods, carve up communities and try to control too much and you are playing with fire.The ULEZ is a form of Berlin Wall. It excludes the poorest who cannot afford to replace a vehicle and the Mayors go electric grant is a scam and still unaffordable for most. For all those unsung who do their bit in communities helping others from shopping trips to appointments is a another form of agist cleansing. Force them out if they are old, infirm or poorer. Councils interfering to suit policies they did not create or think through properly make too much detrimental impact too often.  Egos and power is too prevalent.

Raymond Havelock ● 892d

Hi Vanessa – I just saw this after a couple of weeks away from this forum. Cllr Curran is our own mini-Trump pushing his own version of the Big Lie and using that well-worn trick of repeating the same lie over and over until people start believing it. The “biggest listening exercise” claim is an absolute falsehood – LBH’s own Streetspace survey showed overwhelming opposition to the changes in EVERY case. Of course he would want to move on from this discussion – with elections just around the corner, he doesn’t want voters to be reminded that, in this and so many other areas, the Hounslow Labour group cannot be trusted to honestly represent the views of the people of Hounslow. We would all want to make changes to make a positive effect on our climate, but we know that the gridlock created by these misguided and kneejerk changes was never going to achieve a positive outcome – the fact that this was always a political decision dressed-up as a green policy is evident as it was overwhelmingly implemented in non-Labour wards such as in Chiswick. But I’m willing to be proven wrong – it’s been several months since the LTN changes were implemented so there should be independent data showing how car journeys have decreased and air quality has improved. Can Cllr Curran now publish this data to show how wrong we have all been to doubt his policy? Of course not – all this has achieved is longer journey times on increasingly congested, polluted and dangerous roads. Like Trump, Curran will double-down on his big lie in the hope that enough people will ignore the facts and believe the lie – we shouldn’t let this happen!

Graham Thorpe ● 892d