21 March 2017
Waltham Forest was named Transport Borough of the Year at last night’s London Transport Awards.
The awards recognise excellence in transport and reward innovation and progress for transport initiatives which are really working in London. Cllr Clyde Loakes, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment said: “I’m incredibly proud that Waltham Forest has been named Transport Borough of the Year at the London Transport Awards. Over the past year we’ve put in an incredible amount of work to make transport better in our borough. “Our Mini-Holland programme is making it easier and safer to walk and cycle, and through the scheme we have implemented a number of positive changes across Waltham Forest including road safety initiatives, pedestrian priority measures including new ‘Copenhagen’ crossings, improved wayfinding, safer traffic-free public areas and bus priority measures. All our Mini-Holland schemes have involved a huge amount of engagement with local residents, like in Chingford where our consultation received nearly 1,200 responses and nearly 3,000 comments. We thank everyone who has taken the time to give us their input.
“In the past year we also re-opened Lea Bridge Station to passengers after 31 years, providing direct links to Stratford and Tottenham Hale with journey times as short as five minutes. We now expect 450,000 passengers to use the station in its first year, which is far higher than we originally anticipated.
“We’ve also looked to introduce innovative transport solutions to improve air quality and reduce unnecessary vehicle journeys, such as our hugely successful zero-emission scheme which ran over Christmas, which we are now looking to roll out across the borough.
“We know we have more work to do, but it’s great to be recognised in this way, and I’d like to congratulate our fantastic team members for their dedication to improving transport for our residents.”
In addition to being named Transport Borough of the Year, the Council’s Assistant Programme Manager, Jane Sherry, was highly commended in the Young Transport Communications Professional of the Year category.
The London Transport Awards took place at the Park Plaza Riverbank on Thursday 2 March. The awards are supported by Transport for London, London Councils, London Travel Watch and London First.
