Friday 29 March 2024
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Nottingham

Roads outside Nottingham schools to close as term restarts

The streets outside some of Nottingham’s schools could be closed to cars in a bid to encourage more parents and children to cycle and walk to and from school.

Around 100 schools are currently being looked at by the city council, and it is anticipated around 10 will initially be affected by the closure, with more to follow.

The moves – expected to be introduced at the start of next term after the summer holidays – are part of a package of measures to encourage more active travel.

The Government has said it plans to reopen all schools fully by September, with fines for parents of children who don’t attend.

With public transport capacity reduced, Labour-run Nottingham City Council is looking at ways to encourage more people to travel without using cars.

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To this end, it has been given money by the Government for the Emergency Active Travel fund, part of which it intends to use on the plan to close school roads.

The council’s bid to the Government states: “Various car-free school streets will be created to allow space for walking and cycling to school and safe social distancing for parents and children.

“The road safety team is currently auditing and scoring the need for facilities at over 100 school sites.

“It is proposed that 10 schools that score highest in a set of need criteria would have school street measures implemented in the first tranche (of schools).

“This would then be rolled out in tranche two to other schools.

“The criteria will prioritise locations where improved walking and cycling facilities are also being provided.”

It is not yet known which 10 schools will see the closures first, or how many will eventually see closures.

It is also not yet clear whether the roads will only be closed at the start and end of the school day, nor what sized stretch of road will be closed.

City council transport expert Keith Morgan told a meeting of the Local Access Forum on Wednesday, July 8: “We’re looking at school streets. With the Government wanting all schools back in September there’s going to be a need for social distancing still to happen with taking people to school. We want people to feel safe and to have space to be able to walk to school.

“And also, how they do that – are people going to be staggered? Are they going to have to queue around schools?

“So it’s looking at whether we can close off a road or some roads outside schools to allow people to actually walk in the roads to enable people to pick up their children or allow their children to get home.

“Hopefully this will help us install a bit of a culture as well – walking and cycling to get to schools – that we can build on.”

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