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Profile
HOW HACKNEY WALKS THE WALK Hackney Council’s Mete Coban talks to Deniz Huseyin about why he is determined to connect with residents whose voices are not normally heard when taking an evidence-led approach to Low Traffic Neighbourhoods
Neighbourhoods (LTNs), sticking by the approach in the face of sometimes hostile opposition from a vocal minority. The north-east London council’s active travel and public realm transformation approach is being championed by Hackney’s elected mayor Philip Glanville (see panel) and his colleague Mete Coban, cabinet member for energy, waste, transport and public realm. The pair discussed the challenges they face, the measures they are implementing and their ambitions for this very diverse area of north-east London.
Listening to people
Mete Coban: ‘We’re keeping an open mind on how to build a greener Hackney’
Hackney is a London borough that has been willing to rethink the way its streets are managed and laid out in order to encourage walking and cycling, thus making it safer for pedestrians, especially children, and improving air quality by reducing traffic emissions.
The council has been a pioneer of concepts such as School Streets, publishing a toolkit that has been adopted by local authorities across the UK and internationally. And since the pandemic struck, it has been active in implementing Low Traffic
Mete Coban was just 21 when he became a Hackney councillor in 2014, and retained his Stoke Newington seat for a second time in the local elections on 5 May. He is a co-founder of My Life My Say, a non-partisan charity that seeks to empower young people to participate in the democratic process. An advocate of measures that reduce the harmful impacts of vehicle traffic, Coban is aware that restrictions on the use of cars need to be explained in order to win over critics. To this end he has pledged to listen to those opposed to LTNs and will draw on the experience he has gained with My Life My Say. “I've come into post as someone who was brought up on a council estate in Hackney, who often felt like my voice didn't matter,” he explains. “I'm really passionate about making sure that we're listening to people who often don't have the opportunity to engage in traditional council and consultation processes.” Having received emergency government funding to reallocate road space, Hackney has implemented 19 LTNs under experimental traffic orders. But this
