The borough’s latest School Streets are set to be unveiled to pupils, teachers and parents as they return from half-term next week. The schemes, designed to discourage through traffic and parking issues around local schools, giving young people even more opportunities to walk and cycle. They will be going live in 9 primary schools from Monday (2 November 2020) with more to follow in the coming weeks.
A School Street is a designated area around a school with some restrictions on traffic in place at its opening and closing times. In effect, it makes the vicinity around that school a pedestrian and cycle-only zone.
This helps to achieve a safer, more pleasant environment for children and parents travelling to and from school, as well as pedestrians and cyclists – whilst maintaining access for residents and businesses within the zone.
School Streets help to encourage walking, scooting or cycling and form part of Ealing Council’s work to improve air quality and reduce road danger outside local schools.
They also provide additional space outside of schools so that parents and carers can drop off and collect their children whilst safely social distancing, helping everyone follow the COVID-19 rules.
Participating schools have helped by staggering start and end times, widening entrances as much as possible and using additional entrances and one-way systems where possible.
Julian Bell, leader of Ealing Council said: “We are facing a climate emergency and one of our key commitments is to improve air quality across the borough, which will ultimately save lives. I’m therefore delighted to see local schools adopting School Streets which help create a safer environment for pupils.
“School Streets will hopefully contribute to a more environmentally-friendly borough and ease the pressure on public transport as we continue to take steps to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
“We want to ensure everyone has the best possible opportunity to choose active travel over getting in their car, particularly as it has been shown that a healthy, active lifestyle can help reduce the risks associated with COVID-19.”
Walk, cycle and scoot
Councillor Mik Sabiers, cabinet member for environment and highways said: “School Streets are a great way to help younger residents stay safer as they walk, cycle and scoot to and from school.
“Our first School Streets are set to be the first of many in the borough and will encourage more people to travel actively to school. We want to improve our local air quality, reduce the number of cars outside school gates and increase road safety.”
“It is vital people find alternatives to public transport wherever possible to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and support the NHS as we continue to recover from the pandemic.
“The school run is no different and in Ealing 62% of primary school pupils live within a 10-minute walk of their school.
“We will continue to help families switch to active travel wherever possible and help support both our recovery from the pandemic and help tackle the climate emergency.”
School street schools
The following primary schools are introducing school streets from Monday 2 November:
• Berrymede Infant and Junior School
• Derwentwater Primary
• Gifford Primary School
• Grange Primary School
• North Ealing Primary
• St John’s Primary School
• Vicars Green Primary School
• West Acton Primary School
• Willow Tree Primary School
The following primary schools will be introducing School Streets in the coming weeks:
• Oaklands Primary School
• Mayfield Primary School
• St Mark’s Primary School
• Holy Family Catholic School
