School Streets

A School Street restricts vehicle access near to a school during the busy times when children are dropped off and picked up.

Aims

The aim of a School Street is to help:

• Reduce congestion around the school
• Prevent dangerous driving, parking and turning outside school where there are lots of children and families
• Reduce air pollution (caused by engines running) and noise pollution.
• Provide a safer, calmer, happier, healthier space for our children
• Encourage walking, cycling, wheeling and scooting to school

School Street schemes offer a proactive solution for school communities to tackle air pollution, safety issues and poor health. They can help to support a healthier lifestyle and active travel to school for families and lead to a better environment for everyone.

The importance of reducing air pollution and increasing physical activity for children cannot be stressed enough. 1 in 3 cases of childhood asthma in Bradford District relate to air pollution (PDF) and a recent Sport England Active Lives Survey found that nearly 6 in 10 children in Bradford District are not getting the hour (60 minutes) of physical activity a day they need to stay healthy.

Implementation

To implement a School Street, The Council uses its legal powers to restrict access to school traffic and through traffic at school drop off and pick up times – This creates the ‘School Street’.

School streets are usually introduced on a temporary basis, using an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) to allow for a period of monitoring and evaluation. Permanent Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) are introduced once it is agreed that a scheme will become permanent.

Existing School Street schemes both locally and nationally have shown that the full involvement of the school is essential. It is very difficult to support a year-round scheme through volunteers, without the school being fully involved. For this reason, the council will only accept expressions of interest directly from the school, not from a third party acting on their behalf, and will require a Memorandum of Understanding to be signed.

Funding

The School Streets schemes are currently funded as part of the Council's Active Travel Programme.  The council must apply for funding each year. When funding is confirmed, schools will be notified through the Bradford Schools Online portal and invited to submit expressions of interest through this webpage.

Further information

For more information on School streets please see the frequently asked questions page or email school.streets@bradford.gov.uk.

If you want to report damaged, faulty or vandalised School Street signs, or need to order a replacement resident ‘access permit’ for your vehicle  please email school.streets@bradford.gov.uk.

Schools may also find it useful to download the toolkit document. The toolkit was developed to support schools taking part in previous School Streets pilot schemes, but provides lots of useful information if you are considering whether a School Street would be suitable for your setting.

• School Streets toolkit (PDF)

Clean Air Schools Programme

If you are a school, you may also be interested in the Bradford Clean Air Schools Programme (CASP) which seeks to further improve air quality at schools by providing direct funding, in the form of grants, to help schools implement bespoke emission and exposure reduction measures, ensuring they become cleaner, healthier places for Bradford's children. To be eligible you must be a Bradford District School offering Primary or Secondary education. 

You can also read more generally about Air Quality and Bradford’s Clean Air Zone.