Mr Boff, wearing a blue cap, hears concerns in Swains Lane on Saturday morning

A SENIOR Tory at the London Assembly has waded into the row over an upcoming car ban in some Dartmouth Park roads, warning that people in the streets affected were not being listened to.

Andrew Boff said he had been “mobbed” by residents holding concerns about Camden Council’s “healthy neighbourhood” plans when he attended a Tory street stall in Swain’s Lane on Saturday.

Speaking to the New Journal at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, he said that he had already submitted questions to London Mayor Sadiq Khan to see whether TfL had been properly consulted and what studies there had been on access to important places like the Whittington Hospital.

Mr Boff, the chair of the Assembly and a long-serving member, said: “What you should do is engage people at the start of the process – you don’t sit in the Town Hall and come up with a great plan and then say: This is what’s best for you.

“They’ve given people the wrong questions to answer. It’s not been ‘what can we do to solve the particular problems of the area’ – it was ‘here’s the scheme, like it or lump it’.”

SEE ALSO CROWDS TURN UP TO OPPOSE CHANGES TO DARTMOUTH PARK TRAFFIC ROAD MAP

Steve Adams, the leader of the Camden Conservatives, adds his thoughts

Mr Boff said different titles other than “LTNs” were now used for road closure schemes because it was known that the public didn’t like them. “All over London, LTNs are being ripped out because they don’t have public consent,” he said, adding that it was unfair to brand anybody who had concerns about access or displaced traffic queues as not caring about the environment or air quality.

Critics say trial changes around Chetwynd Road will lead to pollution pumping tailbacks in Highgate Road and Highgate West Hill, up to Highgate Village.

Camden says the road schemes are aimed at reducing emissions and improving air quality for residents, as the council pushes on towards its Net Zero targets amid the climate emergency.

Happier now? Let’s wait and see…

Andrew Boff

ANDREW Boff was bundled out of the Tory conference last year after heckling a speech by Suella Braverman.

“I was unhappy with the direction we were going. Picking on vulnerable people and saying they are the cause of our problems is not a good look, and it’s not even true,” he told the New Journal on Monday.

Asked whether he felt happier this year, he said in relation to the ongoing leadership contest: “Let’s wait and see what happens.”