FREIGHT ACTION PLAN

Join us in developing a Freight Action Plan for Somers Town! 

We want to hear from you if you are a business owner/occupier in Somers Town!

We want to partner with you to encourage you to choose more sustainable delivery and servicing methods and develop a long-term action plan that you can adopt and take ownership of which will help improve your business and the Somers Town area. Together, we will create a Freight Action Plan for Somers Town.

Why are we doing this? 

The Mayor’s Transport Strategy outlines a vision to significantly lower road traffic, including a target to reduce freight traffic in Central London by 10% in the morning peak by 2026. This would contribute to freeing up space for London’s essential journeys and reducing overall traffic by 10 – 15% by 2041.

To achieve this strategy, the Mayor and Transport for London (TfL) published the Freight and Servicing Action Plan, which sets out steps to reduce the demand on delivery and other servicing vehicles. However, with London’s population forecast to increase to 10.49 million by 2030 and growth in the demand for online retail, congestion is set to continue rising in London. In addition, 90% of all freight is carried by road, and 30% of all traffic entering the Congestion Charging Zone (CCZ) in the AM peak is freight. This illustrates the critical role of freight in reducing congestion, and businesses around Central London collectively making changes to meet these targets.

More locally, Camden’s Transport Strategy (2019) states clear objectives to reduce and mitigate the impacts of transport-based emissions and noise and to transform streets and places to enable an increase in walking and cycling by “making streets and transport networks safe, accessible and inclusive for all”.  The Strategy includes a road user hierarchy prioritising pedestrians and cyclists above public transport, freight, taxis and finally motorcycles and private cars in the Borough.

Camden Council is currently developing a borough-wide Freight and Servicing Action Plan as part of their transport strategy, in line with the Mayor’s Transport Strategy. The Freight and Servicing Action Plan presents the challenges and solutions linked to freight and servicing activity within Camden. It aims to reduce the negative environmental impacts linked to the rising number of deliveries by implementing more sustainable practices, such as the consolidation of deliveries and the use of cargo-bikes. 

Camden Council has secured £1.4 million funding for the Somers Town area as part of the Future Neighbourhoods programme funded by the Greater London Authority. Future Neighbourhoods are located in London’s most disadvantaged and climate-vulnerable areas, or areas where residents have been most severely affected by the pandemic. The programme aims to “tackle some of London’s defining environmental challenges, including the climate emergency and toxic air quality, whilst creating jobs, developing skills and supporting a just transition to a low carbon circular economy”. The Freight Action Plan sits within a range of projects which form the Somers Town Future Neighbourhood 2030 scheme, as shown in the image below. To find out more about each of these projects, visit the Somers Town Future Neighbourhoods 2030 website. 

In conclusion, a Freight Action Plan for Somers Town is intended to offer solutions to businesses in the area to effectively manage their operations to help meet the Mayor’s and Camden’s targets and objectives and whilst supporting a transition to a low carbon economy.

What is a Freight Action Plan?

This Freight Action Plan will bring together different measures to encourage people and businesses to choose more sustainable delivery and servicing methods. This could include:

• consolidating deliveries across several businesses, which would mean savings for businesses and fewer delivery vehicles on the roads, improving both road safety and air quality.
• using more sustainable methods of transport to deliver goods, such as electric vehicles and cargo bikes, would also support safe, clean and efficient delivery operations.

There are potential time and cost savings associated with shared deliveries and servicing with businesses generally dealing with fewer deliveries.

How will this be delivered? 

The Freight Action Plan will be developed in partnership by gathering information, listening, and sharing between local businesses, a team of consultants and Camden Council officers. This will be done in consultation with all the above parties over a period of 1 month, which will allow local businesses to feedback into the Freight Action Plan. This team will then draft and finalise this Freight Action Plan before it is handed over to local businesses for adoption and ownership in the long term. 

What's coming next?

A free cargo bike courier service is being offered to local businesses in Somers Town over a 12-week trial period. The trial starts on Monday 4^th March 2024. This will give local businesses the opportunity to try out a more sustainable delivery service.

Please contact us if you are interested in taking part.

Who's behind this consultation?

This is a London Borough of Camden project supported by local consultants Momentum Transport Consultancy.

If you have any questions or would like to speak to a member of the project team, get in touch at:

deliveriesandservicing@camden.gov.uk

As part of the data processing, your responses will be confidentially shared with Momentum who are undertaking data analysis on our behalf. https://momentum-transport.com/privacy-policy/

A summary of this analysis will be provided in the Freight Action Plan. Further information on data protection can be found at: www.camden.gov.uk/privacy 

If you need this information in an alternative format (including audio) and/or another language, please:

• Email: deliveriesandservicing@camden.gov.uk
• Write to us at: FREEPOST LBC TRANSPORT STRATEGY

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