School streets risk only being ready by half-term
As London pupils head back to the classroom only a handful of the Mayor’s 400 new school streets announced this summer are actually open, admitted the Deputy Mayor for Transport when questioned by Caroline Russell AM today.
In July the Mayor announced he had funded 415 school streets. However, his latest report said only 22 had been delivered on the ground. Caroline asked the Deputy Mayor today what the hold up is.
She also again highlighted the funding gap in his Streetspace scheme – when it was announced he received £100 million bids of funding from boroughs but only £30 million was available to be awarded. This, alongside the pause in the Healthy Streets schemes, means boroughs and people across London are missing out on better, people-friendly streets that reduce danger for people walking and cycling.
Caroline Russell says:
Young people in London need to be safe outside schools. It’s not easy to physically distance at a busy school gate when you’re restricted to a narrow pavement and sharing the road with cars, vans and lorries.
School Streets are a proven measure, and though the Mayor funded over 400 over the summer, only a fraction of those are in place yet. Just yesterday I saw the chaos that can result as hundreds of pupils leave a school into a congested street.
We need more measures to enable young people to keep their distance at the school gate and to manage traffic, as traffic is continuing to rise in London. School Streets and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are proven to reduce traffic.
Right now Transport for London is again at risk of a ‘no deal’ on funding support from the government. Boroughs wanted £100m of emergency transport investment but TfL could only offer £30 million this summer. We need more investment to make our streets safe and easy to walk and cycle along.
Notes to editors
The Mayor’s Report for the 17th September 2020 meeting is published in the agenda for that meeting: https://www.london.gov.uk/about-us/londonassembly/meetings/documents/s84594/04%2044th%20Mayors%20Report.pdf
This confirms that 415 School Streets had been funded and that only 22 had been opened at the time of the report being written.
Earlier this year Caroline Russell AM highlighted that the pause in Healthy Streets programme and replacement with the Streetspace programme was a £300m cut to investment in walking and cycling in London. Though Streetspace offers more schemes more quickly, boroughs are still without long-term funding for local transport measures. https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/assembly/caroline-russell/streetspace-plan-sticking-plaster-over-huge-cuts
A recent report led by Dr Adrian Davis, professor of transport and health at Edinburgh Napier University found that school street closures can improve the number of children walking, cycling and wheeling to school without creating road safety problems. The findings show an increase in school street closures would also not result in traffic displacement causing road safety issues in neighbouring streets. https://www.napier.ac.uk/about-us/news/school-street-closures