R (on the application of City of Westminster) v Transport for London
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Sir Ross Cranston |
| Judgment Date | 13 September 2018 |
| Neutral Citation | [2018] EWHC 2402 (Admin) |
| Docket Number | Case No: CO/2370/2018 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
| Date | 13 September 2018 |
[2018] EWHC 2402 (Admin)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
PLANNING COURT
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Sir Ross Cranston
Case No: CO/2370/2018
and
Nathalie Lieven QC & Tristan Jones (instructed by Westminster City Council) for the Claimant
Timothy Straker QC & Thomas Francis (instructed by Transport for London) for the Defendant
Andrew Parkinson (instructed by LCS Practice Ltd) for the First Interested Party
Hearing date: 6 September 2018
Judgment Approved
INTRODUCTION
This is a challenge by way of judicial review to a decision of Transport for London (“TfL”) of 15 March 2018 to begin construction of a cycle route, cycle superhighway 11, at Swiss Cottage, where the current roundabout system is a barrier, indeed a danger to cyclists. Cycle superhighway 11 is commonly called CS11 and is designed to run on roads between Swiss Cottage and Portland Place in central London. It is part of the Mayor of London's transport strategy. The Mayor appoints the members of TfL and can chair it: Greater London Authority Act 1999, Schedule 10, paras 2(1), 3(2).
Two parts of the route are on roads for which the claimant, the City of Westminster (“Westminster”), is the statutory highway authority and traffic authority. Consequently, Westminster needs to agree to those parts of the route. While Westminster states that it supports cycle superhighway 11 in principle, it has concerns about the potential disbenefits of the scheme and the associated mitigation measures. Until those matters are satisfactorily assessed it will not commit to approving the scheme or its constituent elements. Those matters can only be assessed with the use of proper traffic modelling.
Westminster's case in this judicial review is that TfL's decision to start construction on the Swiss Cottage part of the scheme did not consider the possibility that it would not agree to the scheme, which therefore might only be deliverable in part. That was a failure to take into account a legally relevant consideration and therefore the decision was unlawful.
At a hearing on 26 July 2018, Holgate J gave permission for this judicial review to proceed and granted an interim injunction against construction work on cycle superhighway 11 commencing.
This judicial review began life as a challenge by the First Interested Party, a group of local residents. Westminster then issued its own proceedings. At the hearing the first interested party was represented, but was content to endorse Westminster's submissions. For the purposes of the judgment no distinction is made between the challenges.
BACKGROUND
The Mayor's strategy and CS11
The Mayor's Transport Strategy of 13 March 2018 states that transport is fundamental to the lives of all Londoners and that a shift away from the car will help address many of London's health problems. Road danger, it explains, ruins lives and puts many people off walking and cycling. The Mayor's aim, recorded in his strategy, is for deaths and serious injuries from all road collisions to be eliminated from the streets by 2041. The central aim is that by 2041, 80 percent of all trips in London will be made on foot, by cycle or by using public transport. Proposal 3 of the strategy is that the Mayor, through TfL and the boroughs, will deliver a London wide strategic cycle network with high quality, safe routes. By 2041 70 percent of Londoners should live within 400 metres of the strategic cycle network. Figure 4 in the strategy expresses in diagrammatic form the recommended London-wide strategic cycle network to 2041. Within inner London, the strategy notes that the strategic cycling network will continue to develop with cycle superhighways 4, 9 and 11.
In 2013 the then Mayor of London had published a strategy, “Cycling Vision for London”. That sought to double cycling over a decade and to transform London's streets and spaces to places where cyclists felt they belonged and were safe. It contained a commitment to invest £913 million in cycling and included proposals for the construction of cycle superhighways. Cycle superhighways are intended to create safe cycle routes through measures such as the creation of segregated cycle lanes, changing traffic signalling, and redesigning road layouts. There are five cycle superhighways.
The proposed cycle superhighway 11 at issue in this case begins in Swiss Cottage in the London Borough of Camden (“Camden”), travels south down Avenue Road into Westminster's district, proceeds around the Outer Circle of The Regent's Park, and then travels south into Park Crescent and Portland Place in the West End of London. Most of the route is within Westminster's boundaries, although Westminster does not have responsibility for many of the roads involved. It does have responsibility for part of Avenue Road, north of The Regent's Park, and for Portland Place, which is an important thoroughfare in central London between Marylebone Road and Oxford Street. The road around The Regent's Park, the Outer Circle, is the responsibility of the Royal Parks and Crown Estate Paving Commission.
Discussions between Westminster and TfL about cycle superhighway 11 began in 2014. Over the next couple of years there were workshops and stakeholders' meetings. In 2015 Westminster contracted its service provider to produce feasibility drawings, and TfL conducted a number of road safety audits. There were discussions about details concerning such matters as design and safety. In a letter of 24 November 2015 Westminster expressed its concerns about the proposals and traffic displacement effects.
TfL's consultation, its response and discussions with Westminster
In February 2016 TfL published its consultation “Have your say on cycle Superhighway 11 between Swiss Cottage and the West End” (“TfL's consultation”). That stated that cycle superhighway 11 was intended to run from Brent Cross to the West End and to connect with other proposed north-south and east-west cycle superhighways. It set out the details of the proposal between Swiss Cottage and the West End in diagrammatic form, with the other road and traffic improvements associated with the work also indicated. It sought views about the proposed scheme, as well as on certain options, including the design in Portland Place.
Westminster's response to the consultation on 24 March 2016 (“Westminster's response”) stated at the outset that it did not support the overall proposals. Its comments included that it was essential for TfL to share its strategic modelling to assist understanding of the associated traffic impacts; that no traffic modelling outputs had been provided for the two options for the Portland Place part of the scheme which made expressing a preference impossible; that there was a need for greater clarity on the displacement of traffic, in particular in St John's Wood; that it was concerned that TfL's modelling showed significant detriments to pedestrian amenity along Finchley Road, as well as an the impact on bus journey times; that further modelling was needed on traffic at key junctions; and that further information was needed on other matters.
Westminster's response continued:
“Further and more detailed traffic modelling needs to be carried out to demonstrate that the forecast traffic reassignments can be accommodated at key junctions as expected. If the network is not capable of accommodating the reassigned flows, TfL should advise to what degree further traffic reduction is required, or how this might affect network wide journey times… TfL should show the changes in traffic flows along roads forming the sections of the CS11 route being consulted upon, within broad band widths, which is considered reasonable and allows for inevitable modelling inaccuracies. This data has not been presented as part of the consultation material… The City Council therefore objects to the proposals being implemented on behalf of its residents and businesses who have requested detailed information on the traffic modelling work undertaken on several occasions.”
As to Avenue Road, Westminster's response stated that it partially supported the proposals. While it supported mandatory cycle lanes, for Avenue Road north, it shared the community's concerns about the impact of the proposed closure for motor vehicles at the Queen's Grove junction. For Avenue Road south it needed further information on the traffic impacts. The response explained that it could not express a preference for Portland Place without understanding the traffic impacts of the two proposals.
In December 2016, TfL published its “Response to Issues Raised” (“TfL's December response”) to explain “the decisions we have taken about the future of the scheme”. Under the heading “Next Steps”, the document stated:
“[W]e intend to proceed to the next stage, namely full engineering design (‘detailed design’) of the majority of the proposals… However, we will be doing further work on the proposals for The Regent's Park before deciding on a way forward for this section of the route.”
With respect to Swiss Cottage and Avenue Road, the document reported changes as a result of the consultation, adding that, “subject to formal Traffic Order Process, [TfL's] internal approvals and governance processes and those of the local highway authorities”, construction at Swiss Cottage would start in autumn 2017. A way forward for The Regent's Park part of the scheme would be announced by summer 2017. In relation to the Portland Place issue the response said:
“We consulted on two options for Portland Place. Having considered the...
To continue reading
Request your trial