💡White Hart Lane should pilot new approach to drivers idling at crossings - WIP Proposal
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Welcome to Bridged2050: ideas for living well in a climate-ready Barnes.
Richmond Council has taken a significant step towards introducing a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) to curb vehicle idling (You can watch the debate).
White Hart Lane is the obvious place to pilot the approach.
PSPO is a legal tool created under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. It allows councils to ban or require specific behaviours in places where public nuisance affects the local community. Breaching a PSPO is a criminal offence: it carries a Fixed Penalty Notice of up to £100, or prosecution with fines up to £1,000.
The council’s decision followed a ten week consultation that drew over 800 responses.
96% of the responses highlighted the negative impact of idlibng on heath. 83% knew idling was illegal. 65% supported a PSPO; 22% disagreed with this approach. The council summarised these objections as claiming PSPOs were
Unnecessary and disproportionate
A perceived attack on the motorist
An overreach by the council
A revenue raising scheme
Waste of taxpayers’ money
Concern over enforcement and how this will be delivered.
This proposal is part of a wider Manifesto for a better Barnes: a collection of ideas grounded in local insight, climate responsibility and a people-first approach. You’ll find the full list of proposals, along with the thinking behind them, throughout this section. I will return to the proposals regularly to update and refine.
Autumn research
I was one of those 814 respondents in favour of PSPO. The existing system is broken. Richmond has issued one fine in six years despite reporting 68,000 interactions with idling drivers. My view was shaped by research I carried out on White Hart Lane this autumn. I monitored queues at the railway crossing across three day-parts—mid-morning, early afternoon and evening.
The idling pattern hardly shifted: only one in three drives switched off his or her engine.
Notes & thoughts
The detail of this research is worth sharing.
A large share of the 33% who did switch off were in private cars fitted with automatic stop–start systems. BMW for example introduced this feature in 2007, and London’s relatively young car fleet makes it common. The average private car in London is now around 10 years old. In practice that means many Lexus, Land Rovers, Audis and Jaguars cut out automatically the moment they stop.
The main idling offenders were commercial vehicles. On some days they made up more than 90% of the engines left running on White Hart Lane. Vans, lorries and contractors dominated the list. One refrigerated vehicle was recorded during the research —obviously exempt—but the rest had no such justification.
A handful of local traders appeared repeatedly, sadly, engines running. And, frustratingly, so did a Metropolitan Police car.
The question now is how to implement a PSPO well. The council has said it plans to pilot enforcement in a single area before scaling up.
White Hart Lane is the obvious choice.
Idling levels are high and varied enough to provide a rigorous test
Footfall is significant, thanks to housing, schools and the busy shopping parade.
The road forms part of a wider pedestrian corridor, linking directly to The Terrace, where the council is preparing a major improvement scheme. Trialling enforcement on both streets would reinforce the gains on each.
This proposal is a work in progress.
It will be reviewed and improved on a regular basis.
This story was last updated on 27 November 2025.