PEOPLE'S complaints about Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) in Ealing are being 'ignored', opposition councillors have said.

It's as controversial low traffic zones are set to remain in place in the borough as council leaders say they will conduct a public consultation of residents' wishes.

But the Conservative chief whip, councillor David Millican, questioned the need for a further consultation when residents had already provided feedback through a website launched in October 2020.

The website features a map where residents can drop a pin and publicly post their opinions on the LTN schemes.

The majority of the 4,951 comments made by 3,727 contributors pinned on the map are negative and marked by red pins.

"Overall, 76% of comments were negative, 19% were positive and 5% were neutral," a cabinet report on the website stated on December 8, 2020.

Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors called for a suspension of all of Ealing's LTNs until the results of the consultation.

Cllr Millican told the meeting that he's had 'hundreds' of emails from residents opposed to the scheme.

"Residents don't want the LTNs by any measure.

"We don't want them, there's been marches," he said.

"Your Commonplace platform is a sea of red, the petitions were done by 12 to one against.

"The pro-LTN is less than 1,000, the anti-LTN is 12,000."

He later called for LTNs in Ealing to be suspended in light of local complaints.

Fines worth £2.4million have been issued to drivers who contravened rules in LTN areas, the Labour deputy leader Deirdre Costigan told an online council meeting on Tuesday.

70% of drivers punished by the fines are from outside the borough, she added.

Cllr Costigan added that the money from fines is ring fenced for transport-related initiatives, but mostly spent on concessionary travel schemes, such as the freedom pass which costs over £10m a year.

The council leadership had got itself 'into a pickle' because the current Experimental Traffic Order (ETO) – effectively a trial scheme for the LTNs which did not require public consultation – expires on August 16, cllr Millican told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"On that date the barriers have to come out," he said.

"A [Controlled Parking Zone] style consultation would be quite detailed, there's no way they would get a report by the August 16.

"They're boxed into quite a corner on that one."

Council leader Peter Mason said in the meeting: "I have set out that our administration will be open, transparent and inclusive, and that means putting residents in control of their communities and listening to what they have to say.

"Nationally the Tory's own party supports active travel, yet locally? Nothing."

An Ealing council spokesperson said: "With the six-month LTN trial period coming to an end in mid-August, a consultation will be announced today (June 25) to give residents a final say before a decision is made on whether to make them permanent or not.

"Feedback received via Commonplace and email has fed into the interim review and changes to schemes to address some of the most common concerns were made, including introducing ANPR cameras to allow blue badge holders access without a penalty charge notice being applied and easy emergency service access."