Nick Lester-Davis

Asylum seekers living in hotels do not receive £70 a week – Full Fact Thousands of people have viewed a video supposedly featuring a former ‘migrant hotel employee’, who makes a number of incorrect claims about what government support asylum seekers receive.

Untruths about asylum-seekers exposed by @fullfact.org fullfact.org/immigration/... #asylum #migrants

I had seen a whale’s tail fluke! Good shot

Turns out the 20mph limit was great idea! Two years on from the controversial policy, it's becoming increasingly clear that the doubters were wrong

Great piece on the Welsh government’s 20mph policy by @willhaycardiff.bsky.social

“What is great about evidence based policy is that it has a wonderful habit of working”

Inspiration for England as DfT work on the promised road safety strategy.

Data published this year shows 20mph on London borough road resulted in:
📉40% drop in fatal collisions
📉75% fall in kids being killed
📉34% fall in people being killed or seriously injured.

Great to see Enfield making their streets safer with 20mph 👍👍

#VisionZeroLDN

Can anyone recall what the Tories and other ULEZ opponents said would happen to local economies?

A city engineer credits lower speed limits and smart design.”

Tools to prevent road death and injury already exist.

Helsinki can do it.

Vision Zero is achievable, no excuses.

www.london.gov.uk/caroline-rus...

Yellow plastic bag of dog poo left at the side of the road

It’s very good when people clean up after their dogs. Yet just leaving the poo-bag at the side of the road, waiting for the poo-bag fairies to come and collect is even worse than not collecting it at all. The poo will eventually decay, but not the bag.

You’re confusing congestion charge with ULEZ

London

But I doubt that the reduction in congestion is sustainable. See what it’s like in a year.

Minor moving traffic enforcement followed 10 years later. Now all part of traffic departments.

We took parking enforcement away from the police in 1991. Now a municipal responsibility and works far more effectively.

Is the city not responsible for parking enforcement? How can you design traffic management if you’re not also responsible for enforcement?

I’m not sure this debate has a point. The important issue on which we agree is the need to tackle pavement parking. The simplest way would just be to extend the London legislation to the rest of England and Wales. It’s very effective

Pedestrian crossings are the only place the police can act - but they really don’t want to.

The key to managing parking and traffic is not the size of the penalty but upping the percentage of offenders caught. Bus lane cameras catch ~80% of offenders and compliance is good. Police catch <5% of offenders so most drivers think they can get away with it.

The police no longer have any involvement with parking contraventions. Local authorities don’t have the powers to demand the identity of the driver

If you want the offence to carry points you have to be able to identify the driver. That’s one reason why parking offences don’t carry points and can be keeper liability.

In London, when we introduced bus lane cameras in 2001, infringements dropped by 80% within 6 months.

It never surprises me how many people see traffic forecasts as somehow immutable, a bit like weather forecasts, whereas, in reality, they are statements of policy. That is what the government wants to see.

Remember the ‘walkie-scorchie’? Not sure the architects have.

Photo of English mayors taking selfie of themselves

High occupancy vehicle lane sign with cars and buses around it

Another 1990s revival! In the depths of today's Devolution Bill, Mayors in England are to be given a duty to consider setting traffic reduction targets for key routes.

This is resuscitates the Road Traffic Reduction Act 1997: its congestion & climate aims are surely more relevant than ever.

Are you showing your age, Peter? I think times have changed.

The key for any politician should be to time it so that the peak hysteria occurs as close after the election as possible.

He’s happy to criticise research that supports LTNs as in some way biased, but is unable to show any evidence whatsoever to the contrary.

SEJ and all those campaigning against LTNs since 2020 have completely ignored traffic growth since COVID. This is what has caused more traffic in London.

Mind the midges

But legally it has to be beyond unreasonable doubt and not just a fair assumption

The definition of obstruction is difficult. You might actually need someone who was obstructed, not just work on the basis that someone might be obstructed. There is also case law about a car lifted onto the footway. You need evidence that someone drove there, not just an assumption.

Definitely a good idea. There will be 6 months of apocalyptic doomsaying before it happens and 3 months of settling in afterwards during which Westminster City councillors will need to hold their nerve.