Louise Haigh’s LTN policy is doomed to fail

The Labour party is in a bind over cars. Its instincts – collectivist, green, managerialist – strongly favour anti-car measures like low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) with roads strategically blocked off, and 20 mph speed limits. Unfortunately motorists overwhelmingly disagree.

In Wales, the new government under Eluned Morgan has learnt this to its cost. Faced with something like a 70 per cent disapproval rate of the national default 20 mph limit in urban areas, it has now been humiliatingly forced to roll it back.

In England, Transport Minister Louise Haigh has sought to play a more subtle game. She has, it is true, distanced herself from the previous government’s policy of discouraging LTNs and 20 mph limits by withholding ministerial approval and central funding: on the contrary, she has said she approves of them, and will back local authorities who want to introduce them.