Clear Zones

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Clear Zones

An innovative and potentially very interesting scheme to reduce pollution is being drawn up by Camden Council.

In a bid to reduce emissions from motor vehicles and meet agreed targets, Camden has made a successful bid for funds from the Department of Environment Transport and the Regions to establish a trial 'Clear Zone' in the south of the borough.

At its meeting on 18th March 1999, Camden's Streets & Transport Sub-committee agreed recommendations to implement a Clear Zone in the Camden part of Covent Garden.

The concept of a Clear Zone is to encourage walking and cycling, exclude motor traffic and be 'people friendly'. Clear Zones do not have a direct statutory basis, but could be achieved through traffic management orders and Council policies, such as the Green Transport Strategy and the Unitary Development Plan.

One way of achieving much lower emissions from vehicle exhausts is by preventing through-traffic from clogging up Covent Garden's narrow streets. It is estimated that as much as 50-60% of all vehicles in Covent Garden do not have Covent Garden as their destination but are merely passing through the area on their route from A to B. The most striking example is Monmouth Street, which provides a 'short cut' from High Holborn and Shaftesbury Avenue (in the north) to Trafalgar Square (in the south). Traffic is often sitting bumper to bumper in what is one of London's most highly prized Conservation Areas.

Camden is not proposing draconian measures to bar all cars or delivery vehicles, but it will gradually introduce more controls to stop through-traffic, to have servicing of shops, offices, theatres, bars and restaurants carried out between set times and ultimately to restrict access to low pollution vehicles only.

Clear Zones will also make it necessary to change some of the road lay-outs and traffic flows. It is not, however, a form of pedestrianisation. Clear zones fit into Camden's 'restraint' theme and are part of a much wider 'green transport' approach. The proposals should also be seen as part of a longer-term strategy to extend Clear Zone principles to other parts of Camden south of the Euston Road.

At present (March 1999) a joint traffic study is being carried out by a form of consultants on behalf of Westminster and Camden councils. The study is gathering data of car ownership, car movements and traffic flows throughout the whole of Covent Garden. Camden will also be considering traffic management proposals drawn up by the Seven Dials Monument Charity as part of its 'Seven Dials Renaissance Handbook'. Finally, Camden is due to resurface Monmouth Street North (between Shaftesbury Avenue and Seven Dials) with cobbles in the middle of 1999. These works are likely to result in the northern part of Monmouth Street being closed to traffic for 6 weeks, which will provide a very useful experiment. It will be interesting to see how traffic flows are going to be affected if this major through-route is closed off.

With all eyes on the Mayor for London and his expected policies to make public transport and air quality top priorities, Camden's proposals could not have come at a more suitable time. London's reputation as the 'pollution capital', the growing number of asthma sufferers, the endless queues and jams and sub-standard public transport all cry out for innovative, progressive and radical means of reducing car traffic.

Road user charging, road pricing, workplace parking levies are currently being considered at a London-wide and/or national level. Clear zones, car-free housing, safer cycle routes, car pools, electric or low emission vehicles, and better, cheaper and more accessible public transport are some of the local initiatives that local Councils and local communities can pursue to achieve instant reductions of dangerous levels of Nitrogen Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, hydro carbons and PM10s.

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