School Streets: Bradford parents accused of threatening staff enforcing no-car zones outside primary schools

The School Streets scheme was intended to both make it safer for pupils to walk to and from schools, and to cut down on pollution caused by vehicles dropping children off at the school gates.

It would see roads outside participating schools shut to traffic at drop off and pick up times, with temporary barriers installed.

Some exemptions are allowed, such as for vehicles transporting disabled pupils and people who live near the school.

The hope was more families would walk to school, or at least park up further away from the school gates and walk the rest of the way.

However, a report into the progress of Bradford’s School Streets pilot has revealed that while the programme initially proved popular, the measures have led to staff enforcing the closures suffering abuse from drivers annoyed they are being told they cannot drive to the school gates.

One councillor has called for much better enforcement of the scheme - including the possibility of installing number plate recognition cameras outside schools.

The report, which will go before the Regeneration and Environment Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday, says: “School Streets are an attempt to change behaviour by making people think about how they travel to and from school, choose an alternative mode of travel for at least part of the journey, and to dissipate the congestion directly outside a school.

“As the pilot has gone on, some schools have reported issues which mean that they no longer feel able to actively supervise the School Street intervention, although the signs informing drivers of the scheme remain in place.

“The issues being reported include limited staff capacity, safety concerns from drivers not observing the restrictions, and even some verbal abuse from a minority of parents/other drivers towards school staff.

“There is also some evidence of migration of parking issues to areas just outside the boundary of the School Streets areas. It is vitally important that we work with the schools to understand and address these issues, both to increase the chances of success of the scheme for the current schools, and to enable any new schools involved in any further roll out of the scheme to anticipate and address potential issues in advance.

“Instances of non-compliance make it difficult for staff to manage and can feel unjust to parents who are complying, making it hard for them to remain motivated, and risk undermining the scheme.”

The council has consulted the nine schools that took part in the pilot scheme. Beyond the abuse from motorists schools also raised issues with limited staff capacity to lay out the signs and barriers every day, and “flimsy” barriers that are easily blown away in strong winds.

Despite the issues, Bradford Council is still planning on rolling out the School Street measures to other schools in the district.

Coun Matt Edwards (Green, Tong) believes Bradford Council needs to do more to support schools in enforcing School Streets. He said: “School Streets is a really important scheme that has huge potential to make or children safer by reducing dangerous parking, hazardous driving and, on top of that, reduce air pollution close to school. Children are at particular risk from all three and this should be in the interests of everyone.

“At the January Full Council meeting, the portfolio holder told me that the School Streets pilot was largely successful at all sites when initially introduced. Whilst I know it has been well received in some sites, residents living near Newhall Park Primary in Bierley are telling me that it has completely failed in their area and they are incredibly frustrated by the Council’s failure to manage the scheme properly.

“We can’t just leave it to schools and parents to enforce the zones. It’s time the council looked at what additional measures are needed including number plate recognition cameras. We need to make the roads closest to schools as safe as possible for our children.”