Residents, including Phil Kemp, left, who oppose the plans to ban a left turn in Camden Town

• THANKS for your December 5 report on Transport for London’s hare-brained scheme to impose a “no-left-turn” at the Camden Street/Camden Road junction, (Halt plans to remove Camden Town left turn, say residents).

This would run completely contrary to Camden’s long-established policy of removing through-traffic from small residential streets. TfL say airily that their plan “will impact a small number of vehicles, which will redistribute over a wider area, making the impact on individual roads relatively small”.

This is rubbish. Drivers finding they can’t turn left at the junction will consult their sat-navs for the shortest alternatives: either left into Bonny Street, left again into Prowse Place and right into Jeffreys Street; or if they’ve already reached the junction, then the next left, to the south, along Georgiana Street.

All these are narrow residential streets, where the impact will be considerable. As for “a small number of vehicles”… at peak times several hundred vehicles an hour, including heavy trucks, make that left turn.

This decision does seem even more ill-advised, given that the results of TfL’s own so-called “consultation” showed that out of the 249 respondents well over 200 were opposed to the no-left-turn proposal, while just three (yes, three!) were in favour.

As John Chamberlain from Camden Cycling Campaign points out, the proposal will also not be good for cyclists. Vehicles using the Bonny Street/Prowse Place/Jeffreys Street route will have to cross two bike lanes in Royal College Street; those using Georgiana Street will join Royal College Street further south, crossing that bike lane and adding to already considerable congestion.

Neither of these junctions have traffic lights; installing them would increase the bus-journey times that TfL claim to be so anxious to protect.

Let’s be clear: we fully support TfL’s proposal of a north-south controlled pedestrian crossing on the east side of the junction. This is undoubtedly needed. But the obvious solution would be to install a left-turn filter phase to the traffic lights in Camden Street. True, this might slow journey times along Camden Road, but only marginally.

A final question. For a proposal of this kind, TfL are required to carry out an impact survey to evaluate its likely effect on noise, pollution, safety, congestion, structure of houses, etc. Have they done so, and if they have, where are the results? If they haven’t, why not?

PHILIP KEMP
Jeffreys Street, NW1