Local people invited to have their say on Clerkenwell Green people-friendly streets neighbourhood

The Clerkenwell Green people-friendly streets neighbourhood was introduced in September 2020 to help make it easier for local people to walk, cycle, scoot, and use buggies and wheelchairs. It will also help achieve the council’s wider ambitions to redesign Clerkenwell Green to create an improved public space, which were consulted on in 2017. 

It is one of seven people-friendly streets neighbourhoods that have been introduced by the council as 18-month trials, to help reduce congestion, improve air quality, and make active travel easier and safer.    

Each of the schemes is subject to a public consultation approximately 12 months after implementation, so that local people can have their say on whether it should be made permanent, changed or removed. The Clerkenwell Green consultation will run until Thursday, 2 December.    

To help local people take part in the consultation, the council has published a monitoring report to measure the impact of the Clerkenwell Green scheme.    

The report, which compares data from August 2020 with updated figures from September 2021, reveals that traffic has fallen on roads within the neighbourhood by 11% due to the scheme preventing through-traffic.    

It also shows that local people have been utilising the people-friendly streets, with cycling rising by 100% within the neighbourhood and by 62% on boundary roads surrounding it.   

Cllr Rowena Champion, Islington Council’s Executive Member for Environment and Transport, said: “We know how important Islington’s streets are for local people, and we’re working hard to make them cleaner, greener, healthier spaces that everyone can enjoy using.    

“That is why we are introducing people-friendly streets neighbourhoods and people-friendly pavements, to ensure that all can travel safely and easily – whether that be by walking, cycling, wheeling or, where necessary, by car.    

“The monitoring data we have released today on Clerkenwell Green shows that the scheme has met many of its objectives so far, by reducing traffic in the neighbourhood, increasing cycling, and helping to improve air quality. Local people know their streets better than anyone, and we’re looking forward to engaging with them in the coming weeks to understand their views on the impact of the neighbourhood.”   

The monitoring report, which has been published in full on the council’s website, also shows that:    

• Traffic on Bowling Green Lane, a road within the neighbourhood, fell from 1,209 vehicles per day to 681, a 44% decrease.   
• At the Clerkenwell Green south site, the number of cycling trips per day more than doubled from 152 to 357.   
• Nitrogen dioxide levels in the Clerkenwell Green area have fallen slightly since the scheme started. 
• The scheme had no significant impact on London Fire Brigade response times, and on anti-social behaviour and crime rates.   
• On boundary roads traffic increased overall rising by 39% across St John Street (up 49%), Farringdon Lane (up 55%) and Skinner Street (up 20%), while there was a decrease of 13% on Clerkenwell Road. The council will continue to monitor this carefully. These increases in traffic volumes alongside both the 62% increase in cycling volumes on boundary roads and the 100% increase in cycling volumes on local roads may reflect an overall increase in activity in this area of central London since Covid-19 restrictions have eased. 

It is believed that the monitoring results for the Clerkenwell Green neighbourhood may have been influenced by the fact that, at various points during the trial, traffic filter bollards on Sans Walk and Clerkenwell Green have been removed without the council’s permission. This is likely to have compromised the trial’s effectiveness, and the council will continue to monitor the situation carefully.    

Local people can find out more about the consultation and engagement events that the council will be running in Clerkenwell Green on the council’s website