Eversholt Street

AN isolated island where communities are cut off, or a car-free enclave where children can play safely outside?

This is the see-saw argument raging over an 18-month traffic ban in the heart of Somers Town.

Camden Council has introduced a scheme that radically alters the street layouts: Traffic has been banned from using a key route from Eversholt Street into Phoenix Road, while other tweaks limit access to Ossulton Street and cut down car routes near schools.

The changes will run for the next 18 months while the effects are monitored with the Town Hall insisting it is based on residents wanting less traffic, safer roads for walking and cycling, and more greenery.

Work includes widening pavements and planting new flower beds and trees, with the Phoenix Road closure creating nearly 700 square metres of new green space. But the changes have not been universally  welcomed.

Alberto Umbridge has lived in Somers Town for 35 years and does not own a car, but said: “It is worth considering how emergency vehicles will navigate densely packed narrow streets in the event of a fire in one of the blocks, and how delivery vans, removal vans, minibuses, stage crews and funfair operators are going to navigate and erect equipment during the annual Somers Town festival and at other times.”

He also questioned the value of a plan that could be scrapped after an 18 month trial.

“It seems bonkers that while we have residents resorting to food banks, drug addicts sleeping in bin rooms, damp and mould and roof leaks in many flats, a street market that – due to no fault of its own –  no longer meets our needs, and council budgets in absolute free fall that the council is effectively able to find money to employ idiot consultants and publish colour brochures instructing us of the impending difficulties they are about to wreck upon our lives,” he said.

Mr Umbridge claimed there were fears it was a sign of a neighbourhood changing for the worse. He said: “Were I overly cynical, I might suggest that the greening plans’ longer term aim is of social cleansing by stealth, by making life overly difficult and miserable for the most vulnerable. I am greatly disturbed and saddened.”

Some funding has been provided by HS2 with the aim of making a new green walkway between Euston and St Pancras stations.

A Town Hall spokesman said: “As part of the compensation for the considerable loss of Camden’s open space caused by the construction of HS2, funding for “Greening Phoenix Road” has been secured by the council, providing an exciting new open space.

“The project will deliver wide, attractive pavements adorned with an array of plants, ultimately reducing local traffic and pollution and enabling walking and cycling for residents and commuters alike.

“Drivers will still be able to get to where they need to, and the council has sent details of the new traffic routes to residents and emergency services.”