Peterborough road shut to keep school run safe

Schoolchildren's walking bus travelling from Longthorpe Green to Longthorpe Primary School. EMN-200316-120010009

A section of section of Bradwell Road outside Longthorpe Primary School was closed to vehicles on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday between 8-9am and again from 2.30pm to 3.45pm.

It will remain closed today (Thursday) and tomorrow (Friday) as part of the Bike-it+ scheme, which has been run with funding from Peterborough City Council, the Combined Authority and Sustrans. Only staff, residents and emergency vehicles were given access to the road during the closure. The project is the first of its type in the city.

Children were taken to school as part of a ‘walking bus’ - where teachers and parents help groups of youngsters arrive at school safely.

The need for a school street closure has come about because the school has struggled to improve what they know is a challenging situation involving parents dropping off and picking up youngsters using cars.

The school has put up large banners asking drivers to be respectful when parking and pupils from the school council have handed out leaflets to highlight the dangers of inconsiderate and illegal parking, but the issues continued.

Eric Schneider, Bike-it officer, said: “Councils around the country are finding excluding school run traffic from the roads directly outside schools can be a very effective way of tackling the growing concerns around air pollution and child safety at our schools. It is exciting to see that Peterborough is willing to try this bold initiative.”

Councillor Lynne Ayres, cabinet member for education at Peterborough City Council, said: “Travelchoice has been successfully working to encourage sustainable, healthy and active forms of travel with schools, business and communities for a number of years. Congested traffic outside of the school gates creates a stressful and potentially unsafe environment for everyone.

“Trials of street restrictions and closures have proven very successful in other parts of the country and we hope that this trial will encourage parents to consider other forms of travel and their parking behaviours in the future.”