Published on Wednesday 07 February 2024
An innovative pilot scheme by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council aimed at restricting traffic and parking outside four local schools during peak times has had such a positive impact, it’s being rolled out permanently.
The ‘School Streets’ initiative was introduced back in spring last year at Hamworthy Park Juniors and St Michael’s Church of England Primary, as well as Livingstone Road Infant and Juniors and St Clement’s & St John’s Church of England Infant schools, with the aim of enhancing safety and encouraging active travel.
The recent trial saw roads directly outside the schools closed to motorised traffic each day throughout the school week at peak drop-off and pick-up times, with exceptions made for residents living within the closed road and blue badge holders.
The results were very encouraging, with an 11.5 per cent rise in parents and carers opting to leave their cars at home and either walk, cycle or scoot and 92 per cent requesting the scheme be introduced on a full-time basis.
Around 80 per cent of those surveyed also revealed they felt much safer outside their respective schools during the period the pilot was rolled out.
Cllr Millie Earl, BCP Council’s Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Connected Communities, said: “We’re delighted the School Streets pilot has been so successful and popular with our participating schools, parents and children.
“It’s achieved our ambition of creating safer spaces around school sites and encouraged more people to seek alternative ways of travelling.
“Due to its success, we’re now trialling the scheme at two other schools across the local area this academic year and more in the future, where we hope for more great results.”
Andy Poole is head of St Clement’s and St John’s Church of England Infant School. He said: “We’re delighted with how our School Streets trial has gone and we’re pleased to be rolling it out permanently.
“It goes without the saying the safety of our children and parents is paramount to us, and it’s been fantastic to see how it’s been embraced by everyone.
“But this simple idea doesn’t just provide peace of mind during the busy school run, it has an environmental impact too which will help improve air quality as we reduce the number of vehicles travelling to our site, often twice a day.”
Mike Manser, a local dad who is also the volunteer head steward for School Streets at St Clement’s and St John’s Church of England Infant School, said:
“School Streets helps parents to be more active and has really given us a sense of community.
“Most people live within a mile and the idea is to encourage more people to walk. It’s taken a while, but we are definitely getting there. We’ve had parents who didn’t want to stop driving but now walk their children to school every morning.”
The School Streets pilot scheme forms part of BCP Council’s wider Transforming Travel programme, which focuses on giving people greener, healthier and better-connected choices when it comes to travel, as well as reducing congestion and making walking, cycling and using public transport more attractive, especially for shorter journeys, and is now being adopted by other local authorities across the country.
It also ties in with Government’s aim for 50 per cent of all journeys in towns and cities to be walked or cycled by 2030.