Northumbria Police response times affected by LTN in Jesmond.
Police response times dropped after the introduction of controversial road closures in Jesmond, city council chiefs were warned.
It previously emerged in June that Northumbria Police held concerns about the Jesmond Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN), saying it was “likely to adversely impact our ability to provide effective policing in the area”.
Newly-revealed data now shows that the force provided Newcastle City Council with evidence at the time, showing how its response to incidents – including the most urgent calls – had slowed since the LTN’s arrival in a way that was “out of kilter” with other areas.
The proportion of the most serious incidents responded to within the police’s 10-minute target in the zones “directly affected” by the LTN fell from a 12-month average of 89% to 76% in the 12 weeks up to mid-June.
That information was offered in response to the local authority asking for evidence from emergency services to include in an interim report on the contentious scheme’s progress, but was omitted from that review and also a subsequent one in August.
Despite having aired detailed concerns about the LTN this summer, the force told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that it “continues to be supportive of the Jesmond East Neighbourhood low traffic zone” and that such schemes can be important in reducing road casualties.
The LTN was installed in March this year, on an 18-month experimental basis, blocking through traffic from cutting through residential streets between Osborne Road and the Cradlewell in an effort to make them safer and cleaner.
It has proved a divisive issue – with supporters praising the creation of quieter and less polluted streets, but opponents alleging that it has caused congestion problems on surrounding roads and harmed local businesses.
An email exchange between police and civic centre officials, published last week in response to a freedom of information request from a member of the public, shows that the council asked on June 14 for the region’s emergency services to offer views and data on the impact of the LTN in order to “accurately reflect” that in an interim report to be published two days later.
A reply from the police’s Central Area Command the following day states that officers had “voiced concerns around getting to incidents with the volume of traffic” and detailed a fall in incident response times.
It said: “There can be many reasons why response times fluctuate, mainly due to levels of demand and resources. It is also very difficult to break this data down by time of day, eg overnight or middle of rush hour etc. However, data for the sector foot beats directly affected shows our response to grade 2 incidents, within the hour, has reduced from 72% (12-month data) to 57% (last 12 weeks data). Grade 1, response within 10 minutes, has reduced from 89% to 76%. This disparity is out of kilter with other sectors in the command.”
The police’s response also complains that “neither the Neighbourhood Policing teams, nor the Operations Department received plans for the experimental traffic regulation order prior to implementation in March 2023”.
However, the council immediately disputed that, saying that police had been emailed as part of formal statutory consultation in February and that there had been a meeting in September 2022 to discuss the trial, and the force now says it was “consulted throughout”.
The email chain shows that the council asked if anything could be done to address the police’s concerns or if they believed the LTN should be scrapped in the interests of safety.
On June 16, the police said that they “would not want to halt the trial but work together to understand any issues”.
The council’s interim report on the LTN, published on June 16, made no reference to the police’s concerns.
A subsequent one released in August did note that issues had been raised about the impact on emergency services, but again did not include details of the police’s objections – instead including a joint statement of support for the LTN that the council and police sent out on June 19.
The second report did contain screenshots of crime dashboards for the east Jesmond area, but no data on police response times.
A spokesperson for Northumbria Police said: “The Force continues to be supportive of the Jesmond East Neighbourhood low traffic zone and has been consulted throughout by Newcastle City Council.
“As we have said previously, we are committed to reducing injuries on our roads and schemes such as this can play an important role.
“At this stage it is still too early to fully analyse the data to comprehensively understand the impact of the scheme, which will be done by respective interested parties once the trial is completed.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service had asked whether the LTN’s impact on policing had changed in that time and to provide updated data on its response times, but the force’s response did not cover those issues.
Last month, the North East Ambulance Service confirmed several incidents where ambulances had been delayed in the LTN area and said “further work” was needed to understand the project’s impact.
Ahead of an extended public consultation on the road closures ending this Sunday, the city council said: “We have been made aware of comments on a local social media group suggesting that Northumbria Police were not consulted about the low traffic neighbourhood trial in Jesmond East. Emergency services including Northumbria Police have been consulted throughout the process.
“We would like to reiterate that a letter of support for the trial was received by the council from Northumbria Police on June 16 and a joint statement on the matter was issued on June 19.
“We would encourage all residents who wish to share their views about the trial to contribute to the consultation, which has been extended until October 15.”