Residents fed up with low traffic neighbourhoods (LTN) have launched an extraordinary rebellion against the controversial schemes – by setting them alight and taking on the green zealots who police them. The Mail has more.
Vigilantes in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, torched a number of planters which were used to close roads just hours after they were installed last week. Footage shows the boxes completely destroyed, with locals online praising the “freedom fighters” for acting against the low-traffic measures.
Frustrated residents in Oxford have also taken action against the schemes, with a video emerging of a driver confronting eco-zealots policing an LTN blockade and refusing to let her pass on her way to work. They have no authority to stand guard at the blockades.
Outbreaks of violence have become more common since the introduction of LTNs, which councils are increasingly using to tackle congestion and pollution in towns and cities across the U.K. including London, Manchester and Birmingham.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has repeatedly defended the rollout of deeply unpopular money-making LTNs across the capital despite businesses, locals and workers branding them a “war on motorists”.
The motorist was angrily telling the protesters to move out of the way, although Twitter users commenting on the video pointed out that a ‘no motor vehicles’ sign could be seen on the planter.
The LTN zones were introduced during the pandemic to block traffic in residential areas using bollards, planters or camera enforcement in a bid to encourage people to walk or cycle.
But critics say the schemes force traffic on to a small number of roads, increasing congestion and pollution.
Opponents also say LTNs make it impossible for residents or businesses to go about their daily lives and have turned some areas into rat-runs in favour of more affluent streets.
A series of violent incidents over LTNs has been reported in Oxford since they were launched, with an elderly man run down and another beaten with a traffic cone. The county council has now approved a £6.5 million trial scheme to introduce ‘traffic filters’ on six arterial roads in the city.
Many councils have hailed the ploy as a success as they try to tackle congestion and pollution in towns and cities across the U.K., with 300 already set up or being set up nationwide.
But the incident in Rochdale on March 23rd has led to the trial being paused and a further consultation will now take place to “consider next steps”.
The trial was launched on February 6th in the Deeplish and Milkstone area of the town with the aim of encouraging the use of public transport, walking and cycling. However, just hours after they were put in place videos were shared showing vehicles driving on the pavement to go around them. And then just after 8pm, emergency services were called after some were set alight and forcibly removed from the road.
The “violence and threats” have been condemned by the council, who cleared up the debris before reopening all affected roads. The council later announced that the active travel trial this was part of has been paused after this action, meaning the roads will not be closed again while “next steps” are considered.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
What? Like Attenborough’s reputation? That’s what is falling. It’s a shame, because years ago I used to enjoy many of his programmes.
Same here. Unfortunately, these days it’s one stunt after another. The suicidal Walruses was a classic. Even in the early days he had some controversy by when it was revealed that the incredible nature scenes were filmed in a studio.
Exactly. Sadly, I have lost respect for this mild mannered man. He should have stayed in the realm of wonder and discovery but I imagine that there are forces at work who are bending him to their purposes as well.
He’s 96 and is travelled around the world in comfort, for well padded fees.
If someone would do that for me, I’d say anything they want me to.
If the bloke is 96yrs old and has achieved the impressive reputation that he has over many decades then I can come to only one conclusion; people are using him like a talking sock puppet. The climate change zealots are putting any old pro-narrative tosh in front of him and he’s agreeing to read it, in a similar fashion to Biden, except Biden I really cannot cut any slack because he’s a tosser. I’m starting to wonder if, like sleepy Joe, he is firing on all cylinders.
And why the heck hasn’t he been put out to grass a long time ago? I’m telling you, they’re using his TV icon and British institution status to be the figurehead of their mass propaganda/misinformation campaign, ( especially with his affiliation to the BBC ) I just don’t think he probably has the astuteness any longer to realise how they’re manipulating him.
I’ve met quite a few nice and gentle people who believe wholeheartedly in Malthusian ideologies which are at their core murderous. All it requires is to be blissfully unaware of other people’s potential for suffering.
When people tell me there’s too many people on the planet, I ask them if they’re going to leave, you know, just to be helpful. The looks I get.! Its like, ‘No, I don’t mean there’s too many of me, there’s too many of them.’
“And why the heck hasn’t he been put out to grass a long time ago?”
Exactly.
We still have the old crone Mary Berry doing cookery programmes and she’s turned 80. Like Attenborough paid shed loads of money.
Retirement must be compulsory on state funded TV.
Surely we can at least attempt to bring on younger people.
I am sick to the back teeth of the old buggers hogging the limelight. Some old dear of 96 died a week or two back and the country shut down for a fortnight.
FFS!
Should we brace ourselves for the UK closing down for at least two days on Attenborough’s passing ?
In precisely what era were avalanches predictable? The one thing that can be said, without any danger of contravention, is that all these unprecedented climate catastrophies are going to get a whole lot more unprecedented as journalists vocabularies shrink. We are looking at a completely unprecedented avalanche of unprecedented claims. I think I can say that it is unprecedented, or at the very least, nearly unprecedented. It is, in fact, unprecedentedly unprecedented.
I’ve posted about this before but today’s news in the NL reminded me of it. Why is ( pick a country, any country ) warming up faster ( usually “twice as fast” ) than everywhere else? This short 2min vid from WUWT demonstrates;
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/10/07/alarmism-exposed-the-entire-world-is-warming-faster-than-the-entire-planet/
“Netherlands is heating up twice as fast as global average” is today’s alarmist headline. Do people actually fall for this blatant codswallop? But do a search on any country and see for yourself. No country is immune it would seem..
https://nltimes.nl/2022/09/26/netherlands-heating-twice-fast-global-average-knmi-researcher
I’m sure Attenborough would “claim” anything if it helps the fight against meh ‘climate change’ – i.e: furthers the continued collapse of society requiring the BBC to keep us sane whilst it’s all falling apart around us. Its employees to be exempt from any carbon taxes (much like EU elitists’ yachts), more over.. including their pay and “expenses” which will need fundamental increases written in new-to-be-declared draconian climate-carbon law so as no matter how screwed society has become they’re always there, ready and waiting to profess their on-high beneficial solutions so the dumb and ill-informed public know what to think, sacrifice and ultimately worship – for their own good of course. Don’t know about you, but I feel all warm and fuzzy knowing ol’ Attenborough is out there fighting our corner.
How unpredictable were they before and how unpredictable are they now? Oh wait, that doesn’t mean anything…
The only issue that is crumbling is Attenborough’s cognitive faculties. When the Windsor’s are listening to Dave, you know they’ve got problems.
“Environmental storytelling” ….. in other words fiction.
The BBC needs a new category for its output, because Attenborough’s latest bout of “environmental storytelling” certainly isn’t a Documentary and it doesn’t qualify as science.
How about Craption?
The “…numbers show recent dramatic falls” bit of the title caused me cognitive dissonance. I read that as “many recent dramatic avalanches ( snow falls)” which is the exact opposite of what the article is saying. Unfortunate.
Perhaps “recent dramatic calm” would have been better.
If Attenborough says it these days, it’s almost law because he’s a ‘national treasure’ and everyone’s favourite grampa. It’s almost as if you can’t dispute what he says but I get the feeling that he is kowtowing to his fanbase – the Gretaniks – in this and adding to his Frozen Planet political posturing. Now we have a growing number of scientists saying there is no climate crisis. Demonising CO2 seems totally disingenuous to me. It’s a means by which they – those irrelevant people who are currently in charge – can get us out of our cars, get us paying exorbitant sums (and thereby force us into poverty) for energy, stop us travelling and so on. Once again, we find ourselves in WEF territory, impinging on our rights, slowing us down, ruining our lives. The WEF must be eradicated – and no, I don’t care if Brigade 77 is reading this and noting it down for using against me later! The WEF is a disease.
Attenborough is an indefatigable bore.
On 03-Feb-07, the BBC headlined its evening news with the soul-cry ‘The end of the world is nigh’. Attenborough was right there to tell us if we didn’t take ‘akkshun naaow’, it would all be over within 7 years. End of the world. Ex-planet.
Fifteen years later, we observe that, according to the UAH satellite data, total global warming since 2007 has been 0.2 C, and since 1980 about 0.4 C.
William James wrote of Wundt that his work of meticulously measuring reaction times with a stop-watch could not be done by someone capable of being bored.
A similar comment would be fair of those who work on climate alarmism for the Beeb.