This is a School Travel Plan Scheme intended to reduce casualties and encourage children to walk and cycle to school at St Christophers School, a girls’ preparatory day school for 235 children aged 4 to 11.
All they are proposing to do is:
- to widen the pavement at the junction of Belsize Lane and Ornan Road
- to install “School Keep Clear” yellow road markings outside the main entrance to St Christopher’s School on Belsize Lane.
- move parking bays away from the school entrance
Click here to see the consultation leaflet LB Camden has hidden the file and we don’t have a copy
CCC’s response
The consultation leaflet says that this scheme is carrying out Camden’s policy to encourage children to walk and cycle to school. Also that it depends on the school’s travel plan which identifies and sets targets to reduce traffic for journeys to and from school .
As we could not find anything in the proposal which would help to reduce motor journeys between home and school, we asked to see the travel plan. However you told us that this is not a public document and we would need to ask the school for it (which we have not had time to do).
We accept that the proposed measures will provide a minor improvement for pedestrians in the school road by improving sight lines and narrowing the entrance to the road.
However, there are still just as many car parking spaces in the road with the pay and display parking encouraging parents to drive to school. In fact the number of pay and display positions has not decreased, so it is hard to see how driving to school has been discouraged.
In addition, the presence of car parking so close to the school is a potential danger to children that walk or cycle to school, particularly the latter. Children would be arriving on bikes while other parents who drive will be concentrating on getting a parking space and manoeuvring in or out of it.
Therefore we reject the proposal.
