One Ealing

Ealing Community Issues

Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are dividing our communities

Ealing Council has divided our community by installing CCTV cameras, bollards and placing planters in an unsafe and undemocratic manner.

We are all for cleaner air, but not at the expense of the residents and schools on the main roads.

News! High Court rules Mayor and TfL’s Streetspace Plan and Bishopsgate Traffic Order “unlawful”

The High Court has today (Wednesday 20 January 2021) ruled that the Mayor of

London and Transport for London (TfL) “acted unlawfully” in their treatment of licensed taxis, in the Streetspace for London Plan and associated Guidance and the A10 Bishopsgate Traffic Order.

A judicial review brought by UTAG and the LTDA, challenging the Mayor and TfL’s Plan, associated Guidance issued to London Boroughs and the Order concerning a specific Streetspace scheme, the A10 Bishopsgate Corridor in the City of London, which removed taxi access to a key arterial route.

It has been reported that the case succeeded on four of the five grounds advanced on behalf of the taxi trade:

In the Streetspace Plan and subsequent Guidance, the Mayor and TfL respectively failed to distinguish the special status of taxis from “general traffic”, neither taking into account the distinct status of taxis as a form of public transport nor the travel needs of those who rely on accessible taxis.
The Mayor and TfL failed to have proper regard to their Public Sector Equality Duties under Section 149 of the Equalities Act 2010.
The Plan, Guidance and the A10 Order unlawfully breached licensed taxi drivers’ “legitimate expectation” of being permitted to use bus lanes to ply for hire effectively as a vital part of London’s integrated public transport network.
The treatment of taxis in the Plan, Guidance and the Order and the decisions to exclude them were “seriously flawed” and “irrational”.

In particular, the court noted that denying taxis access to London’s roads could have “severe consequences” for passengers who cannot walk, cycle, or use public transport and that “the needs of people with protected characteristics, including the elderly or disabled”, were “not considered”, before the Plan was announced or the Guidance published.

The Court also found taxi drivers had a legitimate expectation that they would be able to access bus lanes to ply for hire effectively, which had been unlawfully breached. This expectation was supported by TfL’s own Bus Lane Policy, which asserts that taxis “fulfil demands that cannot be met by the bus, train or tube”, and by previous Mayoral statements on the importance of taxi access to bus lanes.

The Court ordered the Streetspace Plan, Interim Guidance to Boroughs and the A10 Bishopsgate Traffic Order be quashed.

High Court rules Mayor and TfL’s Streetspace Plan and Bishopsgate Traffic Order “unlawful”

Announcement:

The decision has been reached NOT to attend court Today (12/02/2021).

We were left with little choice as Ealing Council sought to side step the proceedings by replacing the old ETOs with new ETOs.

On Wednesday Ealing wrote to our judge advising that the hearing should not go ahead because they had made new ETOs that day, meaning the old ETOs that we challenged would cease to be in operation as of 17th February. This would mean us battling in court over ETOs due to expire in 5 days after the preliminary hearing.

This was truly a blatant attempt to sidestep the court case and being held to account for the clear deficiencies in the original ETOs.

They claimed that new ETOs were needed because the were ‘substantial changes’ to the original ETOs, that is the adding of ANPR cameras and allowing Blue Badge holders access to their own LTNs.

These changes clearly did not need new ETOs, as they had already swapped out bollards for cameras in some of the LTNs with no amendments to the existing ETOs.

We took legal advice and it was clear that going to court today faced with this new situation was pointless.

Ealing continued their disgraceful shirking of responsibilities right up until yesterday by telling the court that we needed to request a hearing for our costs and they would respond at a later date.

In the end having pushed Ealing we demanded that our legal costs were met and they agreed to cover a substantial amount in the region of our legal costs incurred to date.

To be clear, whilst not the day in court we wanted we see this as an acknowledgement they got the ETOs wrong. One only had to look at the new ETOs to see all the changes they have made (whilst not enough) stem from issues we have raised.

The decision to vacate the hearing today was not taken lightly. We are as disappointed as you are, to be denied the chance to have the evidence heard and Ealing held to account. However, just so we are clear, this is NOT the end of the road for the legal process.

We appreciate that whilst securing our legal costs is a positive step, this does not get us to where we want to be with the removal of all LTNs.

Hence we are reviewing the new ETOs with a view to what further action should be taken. We are already mobilised with a great legal team in place and believe that there are still significant issues with the schemes.

They are still unsafe, discriminatory and do not achieve their objectives.

Finally we would like to thank each of you for all your efforts to date in helping us get so far ; financial donations, letters of objections, commonplace objections, research, monitoring and advise – the list goes on.

We have been overwhelmed by the messages of luck and we know how much we were all anticipating opportunity to have Ealing held to account. So much work has gone into what we have achieved so far and we are not finished yet!

OneEaling

Support residents’ legal fight against Ealing Council for removal of the Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) and proper consultation.

We’ve set up this fundraiser to cover the essentials of running the OneEaling campaign which has now moved into its legal phase. We are entirely volunteer-powered, and don’t benefit from any financial support from external bodies. Setting up a Crowdfunder page is the most direct way to raising the funds needed to facilitate our work. Specifically, we’ve identified legal costs as our biggest expenditure and have already invested over £750 on five court filings to challenge these LTNs:

1. LTN 20 – Endsleigh Road/Green Man Lane
2. LTN 21 – Oaklands Road/Midhurst Road
3. LTN 25 – Acton Central
4. LTN 30 – Loveday Road
5. LTN 35 – Mattock Lane

The Council is now preparing its defence so we’ve vetted and appointed a solicitor to represent us in court. Meeting their legal fees is outside the means of our core volunteer group so we’re asking you for support.

3,000 people marched to the Town Hall in September. If everyone pledged £10 each, that’s it. Two pints at your local. Or three cups of coffee. This fight is within our collective means!

What Will Happen To My Donation?

All donations will go directly to frontline costs of the campaign: specifically, reimbursing campaigners who paid for the court filings from their own pockets, then legal fees of our retained firm, Magdalen Chambers.

If for whatever reason court proceedings are halted, then all donations after legal fees have been reimbursed and any Crowdfunder fees applied, will be redistributed to you on your instruction.

In order to do this, please tick the Project Updates consent box. The process to arrange the refunds will be done manually and we’ll need a bit more information from you including your bank account number, sort code and account name.

We can also keep you updated on the campaign’s progress this way!

If you do not request a refund, we will publicly donate all pledges to two local charities, the Samaritans on Junction Road, and Ealing Foodbank in Hanwell.

Here is a link to our ‘Change.org’ petition

Here is a link to the Parliament petition.

Home