Going full circle

The demise of the Shoreditch one-way system - one of the most long-awaited improvements for Hackney's cyclists - was debated at a well-attended public meeting held on 26th November 1998 by the Shoreditch Town Hall Trust. This was the first of a series of public debates on issues of local importance initiated by the Trust's Mike Butler, who is particularly keen to see that Old Street becomes a high street again rather than a race track, and that the town hall should reassume its central place in the life of Shoreditch.

A bit of recent history: agreeing that the one-way system does nobody any good, Hackney Council commissioned and accepted a consultants' report in 1997 on how to reintroduce two-way working in Shoreditch. The consultants found that three or so million quid is required for realigning kerbs and ducts and installing new traffic lights, but unfortunately the government has told local authorities there is no point in applying for money for major schemes like this at the moment. The cash won't be available until 2002 at the earliest, we're told. Seems it was easy to spend the money putting the one-way in back in the Sixties, not so easy to take it out.

Paul Douglass, Hackney's transport spokesman at the meeting, told us all this and listened to the arguments for speeding things up. Residents and business people agreed that the area was torn apart by the three or more lanes of one-way traffic and that the scheme was well overdue.

Joe Weiss from the Corporation of London proved to be the star of the show with his explanation of how he had planned to put in the City's 'ring of plastic' over a single weekend and been told by his boss: "Either it works or you go". He stayed. Joe gave offers of technical help to Hackney, also describing plans to extend the City's scheme to reduce the network's capacity for motor traffic (that ring of plastic again) into Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Islington. It appear that all the boroughs are keen to play ball except Islington - get writing to those councillors.

We next heard a memorable description by Mary Acland-Hood of the successful community campaign to reduce traffic capacity (motor traffic, that is) on the multi-lane system at Vauxhall Cross on the south side of Vauxhall Bridge. A member of the community group which has been making the running there, Mary recounted how they'd been laughed at when they first asked for pedestrian crossings to replace subways. It was only when local businesses backed them up that the Council started to listen. Now you can cycle over there and see the results for yourselves.

Also backing the call for the swift reform of the one-way nightmare was Tony Bosworth from Friends of the Earth, who described how Government, the public and even the Traffic Director for London have realised that we have given too much of our urban space to the motor car and great changes are afoot across the country.

Local resident and cycling advocate Trevor Parsons pointed out how comparatively recent the one-way blunder was. Mindsets take a long time to change, he said, which was why it was so important for individuals to be ready to state what seems to be the obvious about making pedestrians and cyclists truly the priority users.

Cynthia Hay from Capital Transport Campaign filled the meeting in on the public transport context, and agreed that removing infuriating one-way diversions will speed up our buses.

The event was favourably reported by the Hackney Gazette, who also interviewed businessman Henry Stewart of Happy computers who was thinking of moving to premises in Great Eastern Street, but has had to choose another location because of the delay in reclaiming the street from motor domination - he simply cannot contemplate moving to a place where his staff are unable to cross the street. A week earlier, the Gazette had editorialised in favour of reform of the one-way system, and it seems theirs isn't the only influential local voice talking sense on this issue - the Chief Executive of Hackney Council, Tony Elliston, is also in favour of removing the death trap.

But it's still not clear how we're going to make this happen sooner than the year 2002. Paul Douglass promised to go back to his boss, talk to the City and put the plan to the new Greater London Authority when the time comes. What the event showed was that there's a unanimous mood for change which, if the Council harnesses it, could set the trend for the restoration of town centres across London. After all, even the Elephant and Castle - the epitome of motor-obsessed city planning - is under review by Southwark Council.

More background on the push to put the high streets back into Shoreditch.