A new report from the London Cycling Campaign has highlighted Ealing Council as one of the worst in London when it comes to tackling car usage and will struggle to hit its 2030 net zero target for the whole borough.
The report also highlighted that Ealing Labour failed to pledge to commit to LCC’s Climate Safe Streets 2021 local election initiative.
Labour-run Ealing came 25th out of 32 London boroughs and the LCC has challenged the council and its current leadership over it.
In its report, the LCC said: “Following an internal leadership battle, the administration in control of Ealing is still, apparently, committed to a bold decarbonisation commitment of the whole borough going net zero by 2030. But this simply will not happen unless the new administration finds ways to incredibly rapidly begin to deliver on roads transport – cycle tracks, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, cycle freight, junctions, bus priority and more. And that means tackling the controversial elephant in the room – drivers angry about perceived impacts on them.
“The new administration ripped out the last lot’s LTNs. So, the question is, what will the new administration actually do to move forward not back in a borough where already over one third of households have no car or van? From our local group’s tracking of activity the answers so far are not promising.
Further on in the report, the LCC highlighted how much was being done by Ealing Council under its previous leadership but following previous leader Julian Bell being ousted by current leader Councillor Peter Mason little has happened.
In the report, LCC said: “Ealing, at the start of the pandemic, delivered more on active travel and specifically Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, than possibly any other London borough or UK council, faster. However, opposition to the schemes led to an internal revolt in Labour. The new council leadership removed nearly all of the LTN schemes and since then have struggled for much forward momentum.”
It added: “Obviously, the risk is that historic pre-pandemic mode shift (the blue line) simply wasn’t really happening at any rate. It is now vital that the new leadership, if it remains serious about action on climate emissions in the borough and its tough and bold 2030 net zero target for the whole borough, finds ways to rapidly tilt that orange line downwards, not upwards.”
