Campaigners have called into question claims Mini Holland has cut traffic in Walthamstow Village by 10,000 vehicles per day.

A letter sent to residents by Waltham Forest council last month claimed 10,000 less cars were using roads in the village after some roads were closed off as part of the cycle scheme.

Council data collected after recording traffic on dozens of streets before and after the scheme’s introduction concluded claimed vehicle usage had dropped by 56 per cent.

However, campaigners against the scheme claim cuts in traffic levels are actually much lower, suggesting vehicles driving through multiple streets in the area have been recorded more than once.

Opponents of Mini Holland also say closures are causing more congestion on main roads, with the council’s own data showing traffic on Hoe Street and Lea Bridge Road is up.

Paul Brown, from the group E17Streets4All, said: “A lot of these vehicles were double counted, that is what is has happened.

“It is fairly duplicitous, I do not want to accuse the council of doing it deliberately, but if a car has travelled down more than one street where traffic is being recorded it will get counted twice.

“Whether this is deliberate of they have just put the statistics together and have not really thought about it too much, it is not really giving us the full picture”.

The scheme, which was given the green light after the council won £30 million funding from the Mayor of London, has proved divisive.

Closures have drawn criticism from some quarters for a perceived increase in emergency service response times and concerns for local business.

Its launch in Walthamstow Village in September 2015 was met by angry protests featuring scores of residents objecting to the road closures.

Protesters from campaign group E17 Streets 4 All carried a coffin marked with the words: “R.I.P Walthamstow Village” through Orford Road.

Waltham Forest deputy leader, Cllr Clyde Loakes, said: “We have taken every possible step to ensure that our methods for collecting traffic data are as accurate as possible.

“We deliberately put the traffic data collection equipment on the 12 roads for which we have similar data from before the scheme was implemented – so that we can make a meaningful comparison of before and after.

“This data collection has been carried out to best practice and industry standards; standards that are approved and used by Transport for London and are commonly used to review local highways schemes across the UK.”