Oakington Manor Primary Emergency School Streets

Overview

COVID-19 has disrupted our daily travel habits. We want to support and encourage people to adopt greener, more active forms of transport. We have developed a plan to introduce short, medium and longer-term improvements in the borough. The plan supports social distancing, walking and cycling. As part of the plan, the Council is working in partnership with Transport for London to deliver a series of rapid improvements to the transport system in the Brent area. This includes the implementation of a series of School Streets around the borough, which aim to support schools during this time.

Why we are consulting

What is a School Street?

A School Street is a term-time restriction of motorised traffic on a road by a school during the school’s pick-up and drop-off period. The scheme will operate from Monday to Friday (in term-time) from 8:15am to 9:15am in the morning and from 2:30pm to 4:00pm in the afternoon. School term dates can be found here: https://www.brent.gov.uk/services-for-residents/education-and-schools/term-dates/

Residents who live within the zone, blue-badge holders and emergency vehicles will be exempt from these restrictions. The road also remains open to pedestrians and cyclists. The main principle is to make the route to school safer for pupils by enabling social distancing, reducing the volume of cars, reducing air pollution, enabling more walking, and cycling.

The full list of exemptions are as follows:

• Residents and businesses who live/are situated within the zone
• Blue-badge holders
• Emergency vehicles
• Visitors to residents in the zone under any usual permitting schemes. This includes healthcare workers.
• Goods and services vehicles providing services to residents/businesses within the zone
• Wardens/parking enforcement

Local residents and businesses located outside of the zone are not exempt from the restrictions. Therefore, we ask that you do not drive through the zone during the hours of operation unless one of the above exemptions applies. The School Street zone is marked as purple on the attached drawing.

Why do we need School Streets?

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is expected that many people will be avoiding using public transport, which may lead to increased car use. This could lead to more congested streets, worse air quality, increased road danger and negative impacts on climate change. We have to take action outside schools to protect Brent’s school community and to encourage more people to walk and cycle as part of their daily routine.

School Streets aim to:

• Make it easier to implement social distancing measures as more people choose to walk, wheel or cycle to school.
• Help increase confidence amongst the school community that it is safe to travel and return to school.
• Reduce congestion and pollution near the school.