Lambeth plans school road closure to improve air quality

Lambeth Council has set out plans to introduce permanent timed road closures around primary school to improve air quality.

Under the plans, roads around Immanuel and St Andrew CE primary school in Streatham will be closed during morning and evening pick up and drop-offs.

The plans follow the School Streets trial which ended on 23 July School and saw barriers in place to restrict road traffic around the school. It was widely supported by parents and local residents; saw an increase in pupils walking, riding and scooting to school and helped to reduce traffic and congestion in the schools immediate vicinity.

The council now wants to implement permanent timed closures around the school, and will use Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras at each of the three closure points which will help to enforce the experimental Traffic Management Order (TMO) and pedestrianised zone.

The current barriers will be replace with cameras in October.

Cllr Claire Holland, Deputy Leader of Lambeth Council with responsibility for Environment & Clean Air, said: "We want to protect our future generations from breathing in toxic air, which is known to cause serious health problems such as lung defects, breathing problems and cancer and put the infrastructure in place for them to walk, cycle and scoot safely.

Having timed road closures around the school’s immediate surroundings means that children travelling to school will breathe in less toxic air and be able to do so more safely. It’s important that we act now and urgently to start making positive change and realise how harmful pollution is to people living in our borough and in London as a whole."

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