We were delighted to hear that Oldham Council are leading the way as the first local authority in Greater Manchester to go live last week with an ANPR controlled School Street at Hey with Zion Primary School and St Edwards RC Primary School.
But this is currently a one off and, so far, further delivery of permanent School Streets which don’t rely on volunteer marshals have been stunted by a lack of funding and a clear GM level policy. We are keen to see progress on the GM Travel to School policy that will underpin the Mayor’s committment to 100 permanent School Streets across GM during his current term.
With this in mind, together with Clean Cities, Asthma + Lung UK and Mums for Lungs, we have written to the GM Active Travel Commissioner Dame Sarah Storey with our key asks for the future of School Streets and, with our considerable practical experience, we hope we can work with her on inputting to the development of the policy. We know that this is an important priority for her and we believe that her voice is crucial in demonstrating this to local authorities, as well as helping to unlock the resource at a GM level needed to support delivery models that are not reliant on long-term volunteers.
Our asks are as follows:
Act quickly to build momentum: Existing School Streets have proven their success during their trial schemes, but their future is uncertain. Schemes should be made permanent as quickly as possible and timelines should be communicated to schools about the process for moving away from the volunteer-led model, whether through physical barriers such as bollards or through ANPR cameras.
Make simple guidance readily available: Trying to find out how to start the process of becoming a School Street is difficult and every local authority has a different process or, in some cases, none. Any school or community considering a School Street should be able to easily find out what support will be available to them and what they need to do to start the journey. Further information should also be provided around alternative measures that can be implemented where School Streets are not
suitable.
No long-term reliance on volunteers: The volunteer led enforcement model is not feasible in the long term and means that not all schools are in a position to have a School Street. Support and coordination should be made available to school through a team of School Street officers, working at a GM level across all 10 local authorities and sharing knowledge and expertise to enable a faster roll-out and avoid duplication of effort and constantly reinventing the wheel.
Community buy-in: Successful School Streets require considerable community engagement, with clear communication about the benefits to the children and the whole community, rather than focusing on restrictions and penalities to drivers. Best practice examples could be coordinated centrally and shared between local authorities. Where issues do arise, schools should be supported by School Street officers to promote these benefits, as well as support from parking enforcement and police visits in the case of any dangerous driver behaviour adjacent to the School Streets.
Beyond the temporary closure: School Streets can totally transform the area immediately outside of a school. But, as a single intervention, they cannot create a safe environment for the whole of a school journey. Schools that have seen a more significant modal shift are those that have also implemented wider initiatives, such as bike or walking buses, scooter libraries, bike parking facilities, and other support for active travel. GM-wide support for these additional initiatives, as well as infrastructure changes, such as safe crossing points, cycling routes, and pavement decluttering are essential.
We celebrate the committment to 100 new School Streets but we know from the experience of other cities that so much more is possible with the political will for greater ambition. Moving beyond School Streets, we want to see greater pedestrianisation and improved infrastructure for cycling generally to make it safer for children to walk or wheel.
Our streets should be safe for children at all times, not only on their way to school.
We have also created a downloadable briefing that can be sent to schools, parents and council officers.