The London Borough of Redbridge (LBR) is consulting on 7 new school street schemes, including 2 which did not progress following earlier consultations.  One of these is a redesigned scheme. 

The schools are:

• Barley Lane Primary School
• Christchurch Primary School
• Cleveland Road Primary School
• Farnham Green Primary School Extension
• Gilbert Colvin Primary School
• Newbury Park Primary School
• Uphall Primary School

LBR see these schemes as critical to making the roads around schools safer and encouraging walking and cycling.  We agree.  The proposals and surveys are here. 

https://www.redbridge.gov.uk/roads-and-pavements/redbridge-school-streets/

The closing dates for all the consultations is 3^rd December 2023. 

Please respond – at the end of the days its first past the post so every response counts. 

LBR is also holding a series of ‘pop-up sessions’ where you can meet with Officers and ask any questions about the proposed School Streets.  Here are the details:

What is a school street?

On their website the School Streets charity describes it as follows:

‘A School Street is a road outside a school with a temporary restriction on motorised traffic at school drop-off and pick-up times. The restriction applies to school traffic and through traffic. The result is a safer, healthier and pleasant environment for everyone.

School Street schemes offer a proactive solution for school communities to tackle air pollution, poor health and road danger reduction. A School Street scheme will encourage a healthier lifestyle and active travel to school for families and lead to a better environment for everyone.’

LBR make a good case for school streets.  The only thing we would add is that a school street makes it easier for parents and carers can meet each other at the school gate, those whose children are in the same class or year can become friends and acquaintances and this helps to create community.  If everyone is squashed onto a narrow pavement and if the street is clogged with cars this is difficult. 

We at RCC will provide a standard response supporting each of the schemes but we just do not have the capacity to respond to each one in detail individually.  So, we might have missed that a proposed camera is in the wrong place.  So if you live near one the schools, have local knowledge and have the time, please respond individually. 

Our responses

In answer to Q8: Do you have any concerns over road safety, congestion, parking, or air quality in the area around the school during school pick up and drop off times? we replied Yes.

In answer to Q9: Please tell us more about your concerns, we have replied:

‘The congestion and parking problems around schools caused by what is a minority of parents who picking up and dropping off their children by car, creates an unnecessarily uncomfortable and unpleasant environment for everyone and in particular dissuades those who want to cycle from doing so.’ 

In answer to Q17 What improvements can you suggest to the proposals made? We have replied:

‘School Street schemes are by their nature restricted in their scope.  To really encourage parents and carers to choose to take their children to school by bike the Authority needs to create a series of radial quiet routes that lead to the school from points on the boundary of its catchment area. 

London Cycling Campaign has completed the most comprehensive analysis ever of London’s most dangerous junctions.

Data for all 32 London boroughs reveals the shocking truth that, not only are many of London’s junctions still lethal for cyclists but that the most dangerous are actually on designated cycle routes.

The most dangerous place for cyclists in London, we can now reveal, is the junction of Ansell Rd, Price Close, Lessingham Ave, Upper Tooting Rd and Derinton Rd in Tooting.

And the most dangerous junction in the London Borough of Redbridge, as many cyclists have long suspected, is Charlie Brown’s Roundabout.

Explore LCC’s interactive map of London’s most dangerous junctions here.

At the Wanstead Festival a member of the public came up to me and asked if I knew anyone he could talk to about getting a cycle hanger in his street (I was wearing my RCC Ride Marshall’s vest, so less random than it might otherwise appear).  I told him I was his man. 

As it happens the subject had come up the previous week at the recent meeting of the Redbridge Cycle Forum.  Council officers told us the best way to apply is via the Cyclehoop rentals website.  Here’s the link

Ask Your Council For a Bikehangar | Cyclehoop

Saves jumping through hoops I guess …

If you do apply tell us how you get on via the contact page on our website or emailing us at Redbridge@lcc.org.uk

Are you interested in being a marshal with our experienced team? We could certainly do with some more marshals. LCC are running training on 14^th October.

Register here if you are willing and able. If you complete the training, do let us know and we will add you to our list. 

As you may know, Transport for London are building a new Thames tunnel at Silvertown.  Early proposals included a separate bore for cyclists and pedestrians but that long since fell by the wayside.  What TFL are now proposing is a ‘Cross River Cycling Service’.  What this boils down to is a bus shuttle service through the tunnel.  Recently TFL consulted on some aspects of their proposals, for example whether it should run a scheduled service with a bus every 10 minutes or an on-demand service and whether users should pay or whether the service should be free. 

I replied in my capacity as Redbridge Cycling Campaign Group Coordinator.  It was online survey comprised of closed questions and a box at the end into which I could enter text.  I could not find a way to get a printout of all my answers but here is the free text I entered. 

‘I am filling in this survey with a heavy heart.  The proposals for the Silvertown tunnel represent a missed opportunity to connect the South and North banks of the Thames – unless you are the driver of a motorized vehicle.  At present there is no provision for cyclists to cycle across the river east of Tower Bridge.  A cycle crossing at Silvertown would have been a start. 

A ten-minute shuttle service might be of some value to leisure cyclists but will not serve the needs of commuters.  Commuters really need the means to cycle under the river.  Of course car drivers have this provision – no-one would expect the only way for car drivers to cross the river to be via a ferry.  Yet if the Mayor is to meet his climate targets and improve air quality he must oversee a shift from car to cycle commuting. 

I have stressed the importance the accessibility of the service.  Many of the users will be leisure cyclists and this will include those pulling buggies, using tag-along trailers or riding tandems (like my wife and I).  Without good step free access and ease of boarding this group of users will be put off.

What next?  Sadly I expect that plans are too far advanced to see a cycle route integrated into the tunnel which means it is a question of making the best of a bad job.  So

• The more frequent the service the better
• The Mayor should use his good offices to prevail on those who manage the Greenwich and Woolwich foot tunnels to allow cyclists to ride through these tunnels so establishing two useful river crossings for cyclists.  I am aware of the safety concerns that are routinely raised but I am not persuaded that they cannot be overcome.  And it should also be borne in mind that cyclists using these tunnels increase ‘passive surveillance’ of pedestrians and so make them less vulnerable to muggings and similar street crimes.