Police response times fell after Jesmond Low Traffic Neighbourhood introduced, emails reveal; Northumbria Police sent Newcastle City Council data in June showing a fall in response times around the LTN area, which was omitted from a subsequent civic centre review.
Byline: By, Daniel Holland
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...
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