Buses take two hours to travel three miles in low-traffic neighbourhood

Bus operators said they were not consulted about the plans and laid the blame on the delays on the Streatham Wells low-traffic neighbourhood

Lambeth council went ahead with scheme despite risk assessment finding that it would increase congestion on its boundary roads

A new low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN) is causing such bad congestion that buses running along its boundary are taking up to two hours to travel less than three miles.

Traffic chaos around the Streatham Wells LTN in south London has become so bad at peak times that buses are being diverted around and even through the zone to avoid the gridlock.

Data from Transport for London shows that last week the A23, which runs along the western side of the LTN and is one of the main routes out of south London, became so overwhelmed that one bus took 121 minutes to travel 2.9 miles. The route was scheduled to last only 29 minutes. It would have been twice as quick for passengers to walk.

Long queues of cars are also appearing within the LTN as residents try to exit the area to turn on to the main road.