Have your say on Lambeth School Streets: Immanuel and St Andrew CE Primary School

We're consulting on plans to make the journey to school safer for pupils and have invited Immanuel and St Andrew CE Primary School to be a pilot for our School Streets programme. The consultation is open to comments from 4 February to 4 March 2019.

We are trialling School Streets at two schools in the borough this academic year; the first school taking part is Immanuel and St Andrew CE Primary School in Streatham and the trial will begin in the middle of March.

Northanger Road will be closed at the points illustrated in this plan A safer journey to school plan.

Ahead of the trial, we will be collecting data on how parents and pupils travel to school, traffic flow and speeds on surrounding roads, and taking air quality readings before, during and after the trial.

We will analyse the results of this consultation and will consult again towards the end of the trial in July to find out whether the school community and local residents judge the trial to be a success and whether they would like the closure to be made permanent.

What are school streets?

School Streets are timed road closures around schools, introduced to reduce road danger and create an environment that encourages increased active travel. The road is closed to vehicles for a period of time in the morning and afternoon but remains open to pedestrians and cyclists.

Even in a borough with low car ownership such as Lambeth, roads around schools are often clogged with traffic at the beginning and end of the school day.

Limited parking around most schools in the borough means drivers sometimes park in the most dangerous places right outside the school gates, or stop in the middle of the road, putting their own and other children arriving at school at risk; local residents are often inconvenienced and annoyed by inconsiderate parking.

In some parts of the borough, increasing amounts of rat running along streets with schools on them increases the safety fears of parents - the resulting environment for those walking, cycling or scooting to school is far from ideal and discourages some families from choosing active means – with a knock-on effect for children’s activity levels, as well as potentially for air quality in the immediate vicinity of the school.

How will the closure work?

The street outside the school becomes a pedestrian and cycle only zone for certain periods in the morning and afternoon; for this trial, the closure will be reinforced by gates operated by the school.

An Experimental Traffic Management Order will be put in place by the council to close the road. This means the gates are simply to enforce the order and therefore vehicles moving through the closure at those times even if the gates are not in place will be committing a violation and be subject to enforcement action by the council.

Vehicles are not permitted to enter the street between the times of the closure unless they are a blue badge holder or are an emergency vehicle. Residents will be able to leave the street by car during the closure times. We'll put up advance warning signs to inform drivers of the restrictions of the entrances to the closed street.

For more information, you can check out our School Street Immanuel and St Andrew CE Primary School FAQ's or contact us at SchoolStreets@lambeth.gov.uk