I’m down in North East London for a couple of days learning about the ‘mini-Holland’ project in Walthamstow – a substantial investment in making suburban streets cycle/walking/people friendly. I’m here with my local councillor hat on, but I thought some of you would be interested in both the design concepts and some of the change management ‘issues’.

You see, the mini-Holland projects have kicked off some pretty virulent opposition, including organised demonstrations. Even when I tweeted I was on my way to see the project, I got two negative replies saying the changes had caused traffic chaos while doing nothing to increase cycling, with only one person being positive. So progress has been fairly gnarly despite the Council’s extensive attempts at consultation and co-design.

For many people, me included, it is hard to see who would prefer to have thousands of cars rat-running through their street every day rather than a mini-orchard and wildflowers – see pic above. The project involves some really lovely design touches, such as the bollards/kids’ obstacle course hybrid shown right and lots of other beautification.

While some of those who opposed changes have changed their minds, many others, as we have seen, have stuck to their guns. Unfortunately, the project manager could offer no magic wand to deal with this, other than a tin hat, and one of the team confided to us that he probably would turn down a similar project role in the future as it had been so tough.

This is a real shame as we could see benefits just pedalling around – the traffic restricted shopping streets were clearly much more vibrant than those with traffic. The dad cycling past with his 6 year old son on the roadway was highly symbolic of a better future. As with many elements of sustainability, we know where we need to be, but getting there is the challenge.