Request ID: FOI-4591-2324 Date published: 08 April 2024
You asked
Under the Freedom of Information Act, I would be grateful if you could provide:
All documents relating to or referencing the Streatham Wells Low Traffic Neighbourhood, produced, written or recorded between 11 February – 8 March 2024 inclusive.
This should include, but is not limited to, all emails, minutes and records relating to:
⁃ The potential to amend the LTN, or the Emergency Traffic Orders that relate to it
⁃ The potential to suspend the LTN
⁃ Potential to prioritise buses on A23 in area adjacent to the LTN
⁃ Timing of any works that may impact the current LTN area
We answered
Our ref: FOI-4591/2-2324/GH & FOI-4612-2324
Thank you for your requests received by Transport for London (TfL) on 11 March 2024 asking for information about Streatham Wells LTN.
TfL has very actively engaged with London Borough of Lambeth since the LTN’s installation to monitor the bus performance and other impacts of the scheme. Regular meetings were attended by both parties to discuss the bus journey time impact as well as attending onsite with bus operators. As you will be aware the decision was made to remove the LTN on the 7th March and our data shows the bus journey times have reverted back to pre-LTN levels.
Your requests have been considered under the requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations and our information access policy.
I can confirm that we do hold the information you require. However, we are applying Regulation 12(4)(b) as we believe that the request is ‘manifestly unreasonable’ because providing the information you have requested would impose unreasonable costs on us and require an unreasonable diversion of resources.
You have requested all emails, minutes and records relating to Streatham Wells Low Traffic Neighbourhood for the period 11 February – 8 March 2024. An email search for the keyword “Streatham Wells LTN” produced 1,004 hits. It is likely that there will also be relevant emails on the subject which do not contain the full keyword “Streatham Wells LTN” and so realistically the number of emails is even higher.
In order to answer your request each of these emails would have to be manually reviewed and we consider that this task would place an unreasonable burden on us. Our principal duty is to provide an effective transport service for London and we consider that answering this request would represent a disproportionate effort. It would be a significant distraction from our work managing the TfL network, requiring re-allocation of already limited resources and placing an unacceptable burden on a small number of personnel. We do wish to clarify that whilst we consider that Regulation 12(4)(b) applies, this does not reflect a conclusion that it has been your intention to deliberately place an undue burden on our resources.
If you would like to re-submit a more focused, specific request then we will, of course, consider it. If you have specific questions we may be able to more readily answer these, rather than requests for all information held.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Graham Hurt FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
