A group of concerned locals are challenging Barnet Council’s decision to reopen a road to traffic on the grounds that the move breaches the authority’s policy against creating rat-runs, and that it represents a danger to vulnerable pedestrians and cyclists.
The Partingdale Lane Residents’ Association is asking Deputy Judge Rabinder Singh QC to quash the council’s traffic order, under which Partingdale Lane will be reopened to through traffic. The lane had been experimentally closed in March 1997, before being permanently shut off in August 1998.
The lane was reopened on 20 December 2002, but was again closed on 20 January, when the High Court ruled that through traffic should not be allowed pending the outcome of this challenge.
Robin Green, the association’s counsel, maintained that the road, which links Frith Lane and Bittacy Hill, is narrow and has no footpath, but features ditches, embankments and walls along its length.
The lane is part of the London Cycle Network, and is used by pedestrians and cyclists of all ages.
Mr Green claimed that, in deciding the reopen the lane, the council had failed to have regard to their own policy on reducing rat-runs and improving road safety.
“If it is council policy to seek to improve traffic flow on the main borough roads and to reduce traffic flow on residential roads, thereby supporting vulnerable road users, it cannot reasonably be said that the opening of Partingdale Lane to through traffic is in accordance with this policy,” he said.
He also claimed that Councillor Brian Coleman, who played a key role in the decision to reopen the lane, had unfairly predetermined the issue, and had failed to obtain the views of groups opposed to the reopening.
The hearing is expected to last two days.
Partingdale Lane Residents Association v Barnet London Borough Council Queen’s Bench Division (Mr Rabinder Singh QC, sitting as a deputy judge of the division) 26 March 2003.
References: PLS News 27/3/03
