Across the country, there have been several successful initiatives with regards to the ‘School Streets’ schemes. These schemes have made roads close around primary schools, at pick-up and drop-off time, in order to reclaim the roads outside schools from cars and furthermore improve the air quality at the school gates and make it easier for children to walk or cycle to school.
The scheme in Birmingham is being delivered in conjunction with the Modeshift STARS scheme, this scheme provides a range of activities and initiatives with the aim of encouraging cleaner air as well as more economically friendly and healthier ways of getting to school.
The initiative will also help solve problems associated with illegal parking which can prove dangerous and inconsiderate to other drivers and home owners in the surrounding areas in an attempt to get people to switch off their engines.
Air Quality News reported about Hackney Council who sent free ‘School Street’ toolkits to every council in England, giving advice to other councils on how to replicate the successful initiative themselves which was pioneered in 2017.
The trial that Birmingham are doing means that there is no certainty that the scheme will permanently run, but the council say that after careful assessment and monitoring, the impact of the scheme will be assessed before any drastic decisions are made.
There are opportunities for the scheme to expand in the year 2020 but for now, the scheme will begin in September at the following schools:
Alston Primary (Heartlands), Chilcote Primary (Hall Green South), Cofton Primary (Longbridge & West Heath), Featherstone Primary (Stockland Green), Nelson Primary (Ladywood), and St Francis CE Primary (Bournville & Cotteridge).
