We’ve secured a revolutionary concession from Camden Council that would slash the impact of roadworks, after works plagued the area around Mill Lane, the Greek Streets, Hillfield Road, and Gondar Gardens in recent weeks.
In October, Camden accepted a formal Conservative proposal to introduce a ‘lane rental scheme’ that would charge companies up to £2,500 every day roads are shut due to roadworks. Councils gained this power in 2019 after TfL used it to halve the impact of roadworks on London’s main roads since 2012.
Dozens of Fortune Green residents complained that the roadworks were making life difficult in our neighbourhood: creating congestion, pollution, and noise. Most disgustingly, it led to rubbish trucks unable to navigate some streets and left bins uncollected for several weeks on end.
You asked us to act to end this chaos — and we acted to make sure it never happened again.
Achilles Road resident Phil Taylor raised the issue with Camden’s Leader of the Opposition - Conservative councillor Oliver Cooper - who set to work on fixing it. When it was initially raised with Camden, the council claimed that nothing could be done about it. But we didn’t accept this.
Aarti Joshi researched the subject with Cllr Cooper, and wrote up a proposal, based on TfL’s experience. Charging companies every day that roads are dug up incentivises them to collaborate and do roadworks together, to get jobs done faster, and to ensure they get works right first time so they don’t have to come back to fix things. It would also raise £1m a year to improve local roads.
Since TfL introduced its scheme in 2012, there has been a 65% increase in companies doing work together and a 54% reduction in serious disruption due to roadworks. We thought Camden should do similar: not pit one set of road users against another, but benefit everyone.
After Aarti wrote up the proposal and wrote to the newspapers outlining the plan, Conservative councillors tabled the proposal. This forced Camden’s hand and received unanimous support from councillors.
Camden’s Cabinet will now have to look at a proposal to bring in a scheme, and make the nightmarish impact of roadworks that Fortune Green saw recently a thing of the past.
Thank you for raising the issue with us and spurring us to challenge Camden when they said nothing could be done. We’re committed to working with you and Camden’s Conservative councillors to deliver positive change for Fortune Green. When you ask, we act.
