Government Says It Will Clamp Down on ‘15-Minute City’ Schemes in England

An Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) camera on show during a press launch by the Police Service of Northern Ireland in Lisburn on Sept. 8, 2020. PA

Councils across England could be prevented from introducing schemes that involve excessive traffic restrictions, the government said on Monday.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said it will “explore options to stop local councils using so-called ‘15-minute cities,’ such as in Oxford, to police people’s lives,” referring to Oxford County Council’s plan to implement traffic filters that would impose fines on drivers who drive in certain parts of roads during certain hours.

The DfT said it will explore and consult on options including law changes. For example, councils that pursue such schemes may lose access to Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) data so they can’t use traffic cameras to enforce such schemes.

It’s part of a wide-ranging policy paper on driving as the Conservative Party seeks to portray itself the pro-drivers party ahead of the next general election.

The announcement came after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed to stop the “blanket” introduction of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) and 20-mile-per-hour speed limits.

In LTNs, barriers, planters, bollards, or road signs are used to stop motor vehicles from entering an area at all times or some of the time.

They sprang up across the country in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic with the backing of government funding, but some were not introduced with sufficient consultation.

In the policy paper published on Monday, the DfT said its review of LTNs will consider how to address the existing ones that have not secured local consent and focus on the importance of local support.

“We have withdrawn COVID-19-era guidance, which referenced LTNs as one measure local authorities should consider,” the DfT said.

Conflation of Terms

The Oxford County Council declined to comment on the government’s plan to bar councils’ access to traffic camera data if they pursue traffic-restricting schemes. It did, however, issue a statement focusing on the conflation of the traffic filter scheme and the concept of a 15-minute city.

“There has been some confusion between Oxfordshire County Council’s traffic filters proposals and Oxford City Council’s planning policy,” Oxfordshire County Council and Oxford City Council said in the statement emailed to The Epoch Times.

“The county council, as the highways authority, is planning to trial traffic filters on six streets in Oxford to alleviate congestion, make bus journeys faster and more reliable, and to enable new and improved bus routes,” the statement reads.

“The city council, as the planning authority, has been using its Local Plan for decades to encourage and protect key services (e.g., GP surgeries, leisure facilities, shops and parks) no more than a 15-minute walk from people’s homes.”

The idea of a 15-minute city was originally an urban planning concept of a set-up where residents can reach all essential amenities within 15 minutes on foot or by bicycle so they can be less car-dependent.

While the idea itself is a design approach, for pockets of the public, the term has morphed into a synonym for traffic-restricting government schemes that shared the same stated aims of reducing carbon emissions and improving health and safety, such as the LTNs and Oxford’s traffic filters.

Other emission penalty schemes such as London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone and Clean Air Zones in other cities have not been associated with 15-minute cities.

Traffic passes a sign indicating the ultra low emission zone (ULEZ) near Hanger Lane in west London on July 22, 2023. Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images

According to The Sunday Times, the creation of a 15-minute city was “at the heart” of Oxford’s plan to filter traffic.

Duncan Enright, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for travel and development strategy, who led the traffic filter policy proposal, told the newspaper last year, “It is about making sure you have the community centre which has all of those essential needs, the bottle of milk, pharmacy, GP, schools which you need to have a 15-minute neighbourhood.”

Following the publication of the policy paper on Monday, Carlos Moreno, the urbanist who came up with the 15-minute city concept, criticised the UK government for associating it with “liberty-restricting” measures.

In a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr. Moreno said he and his family had “faced harassment, including death threats, from conspiracy theorists fueled by false information” last spring.

“Associating the ‘15-minute city’ again with so-called ‘liberty-restricting’ measures is tantamount to aligning with the most radical and anti-democratic elements of this movement,” he said.

Mr. Moreno “solemnly urge[d]” Mr. Sunak to “reconsider his stance, in hopes of fostering constructive dialogue, avoiding rash statements that cater only to a segment of the population, specifically car enthusiasts.”

Overzealous Enforcement of Traffic Rules

The wide-ranging policy paper on driving also included plans to clamp down on the disproportionate enforcement of traffic rules.

According to the DfT, some drivers are concerned that local authorities issue fines “far too liberally ... simply to raise revenue.”

Bollards in a street in Cowley near Oxford, to create a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN), on May 5, 2021. Steve Parsons/PA

The department said more than 7 million penalty charge notices (PCNs) were issued in the financial year 2021/22, an increase of 41.3 percent on the year before and 21.4 percent on the last pre-pandemic year of 2019/20.

“A significant proportion of these PCNs were related to LTNs and school streets,” the DfT said, adding that around 42.8 percent of these London PCNs were successfully appealed.

The DfT said it will launch a call for evidence on “options to restrict a local authority’s ability to generate surpluses from traffic contraventions which may create an incentive for over-zealous enforcement, in particular of yellow box junctions,” which drivers found confusing.

Other plans in the paper include minimising bus lanes, prioritising pothole repairs, upgrading traffic lights, and removing the right of uninsured drivers to claim compensation for property damage.