Seven schools in Stockport will take part in a ‘School Streets’ trial this summer.
School Streets aim to make the streets around schools safer and healthier for pupils and parents and encourage more walking, cycling or scooting to school and supports the aims of school travel plans to encourage and promote active, healthy, safe, and sustainable travel to school for pupils, staff, and visitors.
This will be done by restricting access to some roads around a school to through traffic and parents/guardians parking to drop off/collect pupils.
The seven schools taking part in Stockport are: Adswood Primary, Bradshaw Hall Primary, Cheadle Primary, Our Lady’s Primary (Edgeley), St Joseph’s Primary, St Mary’s Primary (Reddish) and St Matthew’s Primary (Edgeley).
The schools participating have volunteered because they have identified issues with parked cars and want to provide a safer environment, with improved air quality, and increase the daily level of physical activity with their pupils and promote more social interaction.
Cllr Grace Baynham, Cabinet Member for Highways, Parks and Leisure Services, said: “The safety of children travelling to and from school is of paramount importance to Stockport Council.”
“We believe this project is one that will help to address safety concerns outside the schools taking part and create a calmer environment where people can feel confident cycling, scooting or walking, and improve air quality by reducing congestion around school gates.
“Many families in Stockport have already made changes to the way they travel, including on the journey to school, and this project will enable even more people to adopt healthier and more active ways of travelling.”
Access to some roads around the schools will be closed to general and school traffic so parents/guardians need to either leave their car at home and try a healthier and more active school run or park their car further away and then walk, cycle or scoot the rest of the way.
Roads will only be closed for short periods at the start and end of the school day and only when the road signs and cones are in place.
Residents and essential visitors, such as care-workers, can still use the roads but need to show a permit provided by Stockport Council or, where applicable, their NHS staff pass.
Blue Badge holders will also be given access to get into the school. Emergency vehicles will, of course, be given automatic access.
The times of road closure have been identified in conjunction with each school.
Each of the roads named above is subject to an Experimental Traffic Order for the period of the trial which ends at the end of July 2022 to coincide with the start of the school summer holidays.
