Healthy School Streets consultation - Brookfield Primary Permanent Proposals

Overview

Healthy School Streets Consultation – Brookfield Primary School (Croftdown Road) Permanent Proposals

Overview

Proposals to make the trial Healthy School Street changes to Croftdown Road and St Albans Road permanent and to install two cycle hangars on Croftdown Road

The Covid-19 pandemic changed how people in Camden live, travel and work. Many people have spent more time closer to home, making our neighbourhoods more important than ever. We want our streets to be safe spaces for you to walk and cycle, for children to get to and from school safely and healthily, for businesses to be able to flourish and for you to be breathing cleaner air. We want to ensure that our streets support in both continuing recovery from the pandemic and by providing a lasting legacy of greener, safer, healthier travel, helping us to deliver our wider Transport Strategy objectives.

69% of households in Camden do not own a car, and around 85% of all trips by Camden residents are made on foot, by bike or on public transport. Supporting and encouraging those who can walk and cycle, by creating safer, healthier streets, will also help ensure that there is more space available on public transport and on our roads for those who need it the most.

In line with our Camden Transport Strategy and Climate Action Plan, and to continue supporting safe, active travel following the pandemic, we have been making changes across Camden as part of our Safe and Healthy Streets Programme.

Healthy School Streets create a safer and healthier environment by temporarily closing roads to motor traffic outside schools during drop-off and pick-up times. This enables more children to walk, cycle or scoot to school, with less air pollution, road danger, congestion, and more space for people to interact. The schemes help to discourage car trips, particularly amongst parents and carers, by providing a safe and inviting space for more walking, cycling, and scooting.

Seventeen Healthy School Street schemes have been rolled out across Camden since March 2020. This brings the total number of Healthy School Street schemes in the borough to 20, with 27 schools having timed or permanent road closures. The monitoring data that we have collected on these schemes, which can be accessed on our website, has shown that they have had a significant impact on reducing traffic levels outside schools, contributed to improved air quality and are strongly supported by pupils who want us to do more to improve their journey to school.

The information below sets out our proposals to make the current, trial scheme on Croftdown Road and St Albans Road permanent and further proposals to install two cycle hangars on Croftdown Road. No changes to the current trial Healthy School Street elements of the scheme on Croftdown Road are proposed although if made permanent, the changes to the St Albans Road triangle junction could create space for permanent planting and improvements to how the area looks, subject to future funding.

About the Brookfield Primary School Healthy School Streets scheme

The Brookfield Primary School Healthy School Street scheme consists of a timed road closure on Croftdown Road outside Brookfield Primary School. The closure for motor vehicles is in place for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon to coincide with the opening and closing times of the school, from 8.15am - 9.15am and 3pm - 4pm Monday to Friday during school term time only. In addition to the motor vehicle restrictions, guard railing outside the school was replaced with low level planters and cycle parking, and further cycle parking was installed on the double yellow lines adjacent to the crossing in the form of a ‘car bike port’.

Photo of the low level planters that replaced the guard rail

Photo of the ‘car bike port’ installed on the double yellow lines adjacent to the crossing

The scheme also closed one arm of the St Albans Road – Croftdown Road junction using planters. The remaining arm of the junction remains open to motor vehicles and the junction will be amended later in 2022 to make it easier for vehicles to turn in and out of the junction.

Photo of the St Albans Road – Croftdown Road triangle junction closure with planters

We implemented the scheme as a trial in September 2021, under an Experimental Traffic Order which came into force on 17^th June 2021, as part of Phase 4 of our Healthy School Streets programme. The decision report relating to this Experimental Traffic Order (and others) was approved on 22^nd April 2021.

This decision report noted that a further consultation, after approximately 12 months of the trial scheme, would take place. During the trial period, the scheme has been monitored and comments from local residents and stakeholders have been received.

This consultation now asks local residents and stakeholders to give their views on whether the scheme should be made permanent after the end of the 18-month trial period. The proposed permanent scheme would remain unchanged from its trial version.

Monitoring information

During the trial period of the scheme, we have been collecting monitoring data which can be viewed in detail in the monitoring factsheet provided in the Related section at the bottom of this page. Headlines include:

• Croftdown Road saw significant decreases in average traffic levels: the section of the road with Healthy School Street restrictions saw decreases of 75% and 85% during the morning and afternoon respectively, while the unrestricted section also saw reductions of 71% and 49% at these times.
• During the restriction times, St Albans Road saw average decreases in traffic levels of 34% during the morning and 31% during the afternoon.
• Chester Road saw increases of traffic 2% in the morning and 17% during the afternoon.
• Both the restricted and unrestricted sections of Croftdown Road saw decreases in average speeds of between 2-4 mph during the restriction times. All sites surveyed showed that average traffic speeds were under 20mph.
• Average levels of cycling on St Albans Road and the section of Croftdown Road with restrictions increased, both in the morning and afternoon restriction times. Chester Road also had significant increases in cycling during the morning.
• Air quality monitoring data showed that there was a 10.3% decrease in levels of harmful NO₂ recorded outside Brookfield Primary School when comparing data for February/March 2021 (pre-trial) with data for the same months in 2022 (during trial), and a 9.9% decrease on Chester Road and 13.5% decrease on Bramshill Gardens when comparing data for February-April 2021 and February-April 2022.

What are we now consulting on?

Based on the monitoring data and the feedback received from residents and stakeholders during the trial period, and in line with policies and objectives set out in our Camden Transport Strategy, Climate Action Plan and Clean Air Action Plan, we are now consulting on making the trial changes permanent.

You can view the drawing of the proposed permanent scheme in the Related section at the bottom of this page.

The Brookfield Primary School Healthy School Street scheme consists of a timed road closure for motor vehicles on Croftdown Road during school drop off and pick up times. This is enforced using signage and an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras at Croftdown Road’s junctions with St Albans Road and Chester Road. The traffic restrictions are in place between 8.15am – 9.15am and 3pm – 4pm Monday to Friday during school term time only. The ANPR cameras only record vehicles travelling into the zone during the hours of operation so if a vehicle is already parked within the zone, it can be driven out of the area without incurring a fine. These features would be retained in the permanent scheme, if approved following this consultation.

The following vehicles are exempt from the restrictions:

• Vehicles registered to properties and businesses on the section of the road with restrictions where exemptions have been agreed with the Council.
• Any vehicle being used for ambulance, fire brigade or policing purposes.
• Refuse collection vehicles.
• Blue Disabled Badge holders that require access, where exemptions have been agreed with the Council.
• Services such as Dial-A-Ride and PlusBus Door to Door.
• Vehicles belonging to parents or carers of pupils of the school that have a disability that prevents them from walking, cycling, or scooting to school, where exemptions have been agreed with the Council.
• Other exemptions agreed with the Council on a case-by-case basis.

Taxis and deliveries will continue to not be exempt, and these should be scheduled outside of the restricted times, or the vehicle should be parked outside of the restricted area and the remainder of the journey carried out on foot. However, exemptions can be applied for in exceptional circumstances, such as when people with mobility issues may need essential taxis during the restricted hours. 

The scheme also closed one arm of the St Albans Road – Croftdown Road triangle junction by installing four planters. If the scheme is made permanent, this space could be used to install further permanent planting and other improvements to how the area looks, subject to future funding becoming available.

Based on the overall positive traffic data during the times of the restrictions, air quality data, and feedback received from residents and stakeholders during the trial period, we are now consulting on making the scheme permanent.

About the proposed cycle hangar installations on Croftdown Road

Residents in Camden have told us that they would like to have more lockable cycle parking, for hire, close to where they live. We know that a lack of somewhere to keep a bike safely can put people off taking up cycling. As a result, we are rolling out a programme of installing cycle hangars across the borough.

Cycle hangars also help to deliver our own Transport Strategy priorities, which were strongly supported when we consulted on them, including increasing cycling, improving air quality, and making our streets and transport networks safe, accessible, and inclusive for all.

Therefore, we are also consulting on introducing the following proposal on a permanent basis:

• To install two cycle hangars on Croftdown Road opposite Brookfield Primary School, to provide secure cycle parking for up to 12 standard bikes for local residents, which would require the removal of 5.2 metres of permit holder parking space.

The above proposal would help us to provide new secure cycle parking space for local residents. There are currently 25 residents on the waiting list for the existing cycle hangar on Croftdown Road.

Cycle hangars are installed and maintained by Cyclehoop, the Council’s approved supplier. Further details are available on their website: https://www.cyclehoop.com/product/shelters-canopies/bikehangar/

Each hangar is 1.33m high with a curved profile roof (see image below). Maintenance is covered by the annual membership fee which is currently £36 per year.

Are you eligible?

The criteria for being able to hire a space in a cycle hangar prioritises residents who:

• Live on the street (or an adjacent one) where hangars are proposed; and,
• Do not have suitable outside space for keeping a cycle.

Photo of cycle hangars, which are proposed to be installed on Croftdown Road

Why your views matter

The previous changes were implemented as a trial under an Experimental Traffic Order for 18 months. We committed to undertaking a public consultation after around 12 months of the trial scheme to seek the views of local residents and stakeholders on making the trial scheme permanent after the 18-month trial period. We are also seeking your views on whether to install two cycle hangars on a permanent basis.

Your views are important in providing feedback both on the proposed scheme as a whole and elements of it, and we would therefore welcome your responses on the pages that follow. To view the plans and find out more about the proposals, click on the links in the Related section at the bottom of this page.

We will be pleased to hear your views on the proposals as well as any alternative suggestions or objections you may have to any aspect of what we are proposing.

What happens next?

After the consultation, a decision report will be produced and published online via our website. Local residents and stakeholders will be notified of the outcome. The report will consider a broad range of information including consultation responses, feedback received during the trial period, relevant policies and other data/information including monitoring information collected during the trial period.

All of this information will be considered in making a recommendation in the report about whether, at the end of the trial period, the experimental scheme should be made permanent, modified, or allowed to lapse and whether the cycle hangars should be installed.

What happens next

 As the consultation is now closed,your views, and those of everyone who contributes to this consultation, will be analysed and considered, alongside relevant data available on the scheme and in light of how the scheme aligns with our current policy objectives, in order to put forward recommendations on whether to proceed with the proposals.  A summary of this analysis will be provided in the decision report, and will be made available on the Camden Council website in due course.

If you have any other ideas for improvements to make travel safer and healthier in this area, please go to Safe Travel Camden Map  to make some suggestions.