Jason Perry's LTN fiasco: how Croydon ended up with the worst possible outcome

Croydon residents have just witnessed one of the most extraordinary policy failures of the current administration. Jason Perry promised to restore competence to Croydon Council, yet his handling of the borough's Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) has produced the worst possible outcome: the schemes have been ruled unlawful by the High Court, millions of pounds in fines must now be refunded, and Croydon is left with none of the environmental or traffic-management benefits that these schemes were originally intended to deliver.

What makes this failure particularly striking is that it was entirely avoidable.

During the 2022 mayoral election campaign, Jason Perry repeatedly assured voters that he would remove the LTNs immediately if elected. At one hustings, standing beside me on the stage, he told residents that the LTNs would be removed "on Day 1". It was a clear and unambiguous promise designed to capitalise on the anger that some motorists felt towards the schemes.

Yet once elected, the Mayor did not remove the LTNs. Instead, he did the opposite. Rather than scrapping them, his administration chose to make the schemes permanent with ANPR enforcement. What had originally been traffic management measures suddenly became something very different: a system based on automated enforcement and financial penalties.

This change fundamentally altered the nature of the schemes. The original LTNs did not generate fines or income as they consisted of planters blocking access. Their purpose was to reduce through-traffic on residential streets, improve air quality and make neighbourhoods safer for people who live there. But under the Perry administration, the emphasis shifted from traffic management to enforcement.

That shift created a deeper problem. Policies designed to change behaviour should never depend on fines as a source of income. During the 2022 campaign I warned that schemes of this kind cannot simultaneously rely on enforcement revenue and claim to be about behaviour change. As I said at the time, "Any scheme that aims to change behaviour by means of charges or penalties can only either generate revenue, or change behaviour. It cannot do both."

If large numbers of motorists are being fined, it means the policy is failing to change behaviour. If behaviour changes successfully, the revenue disappears. Trying to achieve both outcomes at the same time is not sound policy. In Croydon's case, it has turned into a costly mistake.

The situation deteriorated further when the High Court ruled that Croydon's LTN enforcement was unlawful. In a remarkable twist, the court's judgment relied heavily on the Mayor's own public comments about the schemes. Those statements undermined the legal basis on which the Council was attempting to justify the enforcement regime.

In other words, the case was not lost because of a minor administrative error. The court concluded that the Council's position was inconsistent with the way the schemes had been publicly described and defended. The Mayor's own words had effectively weakened the legal foundation of the policy.

Once the judgment was handed down, the consequences were inevitable. The Council has been forced to abandon its appeal and begin preparing to refund the fines that had been issued under the unlawful enforcement system.

The financial implications for Croydon taxpayers are significant. Estimates suggest that around £5 million in fines may now have to be refunded, before even considering the administrative cost of processing those refunds. At a time when Croydon remains heavily indebted and reliant on exceptional financial support from government, losing millions of pounds in this way is difficult to justify.

What makes the episode so frustrating is that Croydon has ended up with the worst possible outcome. Because of the way the issue has been handled, the borough has lost the environmental and safety benefits that LTNs were intended to provide. The schemes have collapsed in the courts, the Council must repay millions of pounds, and public confidence in traffic policy has been further eroded.

None of this needed to happen.

Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are not inherently good or bad policy. Like any traffic scheme, they succeed or fail depending on how they are introduced and managed. They require proper consultation, careful design and a clear focus on improving neighbourhood streets rather than penalising motorists. Where enforcement is required, it must support the policy rather than become its defining feature.

Instead of taking that measured approach, Croydon's administration attempted to convert the schemes into an enforcement regime that appeared to rely heavily on fines. In doing so it undermined both the public legitimacy and the legal robustness of the policy.

The result is a fiasco that has left Croydon with neither the safer streets nor the cleaner air that supporters of LTNs hoped for, and none of the revenue that the Council appeared to expect from enforcement. What remains instead is a substantial bill that local taxpayers must now pay.

Jason Perry was elected promising to restore sound governance to Croydon Council. On the issue of LTNs, however, his leadership has delivered confusion, legal defeat and millions of pounds in wasted public money.

Croydon residents deserve better than that.