Sutton Council is proposing to use cameras at all its trial low traffic area schemes following feedback from the borough’s emergency services and resident concerns about emergency service access.

The move would see existing barriers and planters removed from all sites.

The proposal will be one of the key recommendations at the next meeting of the Council’s Environment & Sustainable Transport Committee when councillors will review the borough’s Safer, Active, Greener Streets programme after its first four months of operation.

Two of the five trial schemes – Butter Hill and Worcester Park – are currently enforced with cameras. The switch, if agreed by councillors, will mean that enforcement at any other schemes will be by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras.

The Council communicates with the borough’s emergency services on a weekly basis about how its trial Safer, Active, Greener Streets schemes are operating. Following their feedback, the Council is proposing to remove any physical barriers and replace them with cameras to allow emergency services access to all parts of the borough.

Councillors will discuss the proposals at their meeting on 28 January and will be asked to back the move as part of the borough’s response to the pandemic and supporting the emergency services locally.