School street in action in Haringey
(Picture: Handout)The only inner London borough not to introduce “school streets” is under pressure to do more to protect children from road danger and toxic air.
More than a third of primaries in Hammersmith and Fulham have called on the council to rethink its opposition to restricting vehicles — including parents on the “school run” — at the start and end of the school day.
The Labour-run authority is one of only two London boroughs — the other is Bexley — understood not to have introduced any school streets, which fine non-residents for driving during restricted periods.
It comes as the Evening Standard launched a major campaign, Plug It In, to highlight the benefits and explore the challenges of the capital going electric.
There are more than 500 schemes across the capital and Transport for London says they have been effective at reducing air pollution and encouraging families to walk or cycle to school. Before the pandemic, a quarter of weekday morning rush hour car trips were for school drop-off.
Hammersmith and Fulham introduced a trial scheme in 2018 but scrapped it after two months “due to the council’s policy for fairness to drivers” in the wake of complaints from motorists, with penalty tickets being refunded.
Headteachers, governors and parents from 16 primaries have now written to the council “begging” it to follow neighbouring boroughs such as Brent and Hounslow, which each have more than 30 school streets.
They accuse the council of pursing watered-down “streetscape” alternatives, such as planting flowerbeds and widening pavements, that do nothing to restrict traffic at the school gate.
Nikita Crocker, organiser of the newly formed H&F Clean Air Parents campaign group, said: “We just want children at our schools to benefit from the same protections now enjoyed by pupils at hundreds of schools in other boroughs across the capital.”
Latest data from TfL shows more than 400 school streets have been introduced since the start of the pandemic — meaning traffic is restricted during drop off and pick up at one in five primary schools in the capital.
City Hall data shows that air quality at every school in Hammersmith and Fulham breaches World Health Organisation guidelines on particulate and nitrogen dioxide.
A council spokesperson said: “We’re rolling out our award-winning ‘air-cleansing scheme’ that does more and goes further than [school streets] do by taking a holistic approach.
“Our pioneering initiative slashes rat-running traffic across whole neighbourhoods and is helping to reduce poisonous NO2 in the air we breathe.”
