Tower Hamlets has experienced the most significant drop in the London Healthy Streets Scorecard, thanks to the Mayor’s agenda against Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs), latest figures show.

Tower Hamlets’ overall score in the London Boroughs Healthy Streets Scorecard has seen the biggest decline, having dropped four places to tenth place in the standings.

Now in its sixth year, the annual rankings are launched by the London Healthy Streets Coalition who measure each borough against initiatives taken to promote walking, cycling and public transport while lessening road danger.

A London Healthy Streets Coalition spokesperson said: “We really need all councils pulling their weight, urgently. The boroughs now have dedicated ‘Local Implementation Funding’ and need to move fast to deliver if any of the Mayor’s ‘healthy streets’ targets for London are to be met.

“We really hope to see much stronger action from all boroughs in the coming year.”

Mayor Lutfur Rahman, who has historically faced several controversies, has repeatedly threatened to scrap all the borough’s LTNs which the coalition points to as the primary reason for their fall on the scoreboard.

Rahman currently finds himself in an ongoing legal dispute with the Save Our Safer Streets campaign group after he removed three LTNs in Bethnal Green in 2023, which the activists claim he did so unlawfully.

Following the decision, Transport for London announced it was stripping the borough from £1M of funding unless it sought to reduce car use and increase ‘active travel’.

The coalition also highlight the borough’s passive ‘inaction’ for another reason behind the drop in rankings – despite having one of the lowest car ownership rates in the capital, its policies to actively combat car-related issues remain stagnant.

How did other boroughs perform in the London Boroughs Healthy Streets Scorecard?

Newham was awarded ‘Most Improved Borough’ after the proportion of traffic-free school streets has more than doubled since last year and almost all roads in the area are now restricted to 20mph.

Mayor of Newham Rokhsana Fiaz said: “This is a testament to the success of our Healthy School Streets programme – putting the health and safety of our children and communities first by cutting traffic, reducing pollution and transforming how we safely move through our neighbourhoods.

“I want to thank all our schools, families, officers and residents who’ve helped make this happen.”

The other winners of this year include Islington as best inner London borough, Waltham Forest as outer London borough and the City of London as overall winner.

The organisation also individually ranks boroughs based on individual metrics, as shown below.

*City of London is not included in this highest and lowest scores chart because its scores are not always comparable (this is because it is not primarily a residential borough and relates to the methodology used).

** Data for Westminster and City of London are combined in this data supplied by TfL.

Feature image credit: SounderBruce via Wikimedia Commons