Comment: ‘15-minute cities will offer more freedom, not less’

As enjoyable as chauffeuring 16-year-olds to their every engagement and getting in the car whenever you’ve forgotten one key ingredient no doubt is, I don’t think most Londoners pay well over the odds to live here with this particular privilege in mind.

Instead, in the capital we are inching towards the 15-minute city, a concept gaining traction among local government wonks whereby all people’s basic needs, from parks and shops to schools and offices can be met within a quarter hour’s walk or cycle.

An innocuous idea at worst, you might think.

And yet, speaking in the House of Commons, Don Valley MP Nick Fletcher branded it an “international socialist concept” that “will cost us our personal freedom”. GB News then picked up the story, calling the 15-minute city “deeply illiberal”.

Separately, anti-LTN campaigners have implied that low-traffic measures could actively prohibit residents leaving their neighbourhoods.

Ludicrous? I hope I’m not alone in thinking so.

We’re lucky in London that while we can still drive most places — including to retail parks and multiplexes if we prefer them to local boutiques and cafes — those of us who are able-bodied and not carrying heavy furniture or children have plenty of options if we choose not to.

Those outside the capital deserve the freedom to enjoy clean air and walkable, cycle-friendly neighbourhoods, too, rather than having that freedom curtailed by suspicious minds.