Somers Town Future Neighbourhood Healthy School Streets consultation

Overview

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. Healthy School Streets (HSS) help to discourage car trips, particularly amongst parents and carers, by providing a safe and inviting space for more walking, cycling, and scooting.

Somers Town has received funding from the Mayor of London to become a more sustainable neighbourhood, through the Future Neighbourhoods 2030 Fund. Through the implementation of 10 different projects, Somers Town Future Neighbourhoods 2030 aims to make Somers Town a more climate resilient and healthy place to live. One of these projects is focused on introducing Healthy School Streets, which restrict traffic at school drop-off and pick-up times, outside the 5 Schools within Somers Town.

We are currently carrying out a joint consultation on introducing Healthy School Street measures outside:

• St Mary and St Pancras Primary School 
• Blossom House School
• Regent High School
• Edith Neville Primary School

These changes include proposals to make the current, trial Healthy School Street on Polygon Road permanent, whilst extending it out to cover more streets, and restricting traffic outside Regent High and Edith Neville Schools at school-run times.

We will be carrying out a separate consultation on introducing a healthy school street outside Maria Fidelis Catholic School, on Doric Way/ Drummond Crescent.

We will also be consulting on wider proposals for reducing through-traffic and enhancing green space in the Somers Town area through the Greening Phoenix Road project, which we will bring forward in a separate consultation later in the year, for which further details will follow in due course.

Image of the current, trial Healthy School Street on Polygon Road

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed how people in Camden live, travel and work. Since the start of the pandemic many of us have been spending 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 recovery from the pandemic and provide a lasting legacy of greener, safer, healthier travel, helping us to deliver our wide Transport Strategy objectives.

The information below sets out our proposals to make the current, trial scheme on Polygon Road permanent with an expansion to cover other neighbouring streets, and install new Healthy School Streets to cover Regent High and Edith Neville Schools.

Map of the proposed Healthy School Streets in Somers Town that are part of this consultation

What is proposed?

Scheme 1: St Mary and St Pancras School, and Blossom House School, Healthy School Street

This proposal includes:

• Making the existing trial ‘timed’ closure on Polygon Road, between the junctions of Chalton Street and Werrington Street permanent;
• Extending the ‘timed’ closures to include:

• Werrington Street from the junction with Bridgeway Street to, and including, the junction with Polygon Road
• Polygon Road from the junction with Eversholt Street to the junction with Chalton Street
• Aldenham Street, in its entirety.

• The trial Healthy School Street hours is proposed to be extended by half an hour in the morning and would therefore restrict traffic from 8:00am - 9:30am and 3:00pm - 4:00pm, Monday to Friday (during term time only). The proposed morning extension, by a further 30 minutes, is to ensure both schools can benefit from the Healthy School Street, to fit well with their start times, and to align times with other Healthy School Street restrictions proposed at Edith Neville and Regent High School.
• Introducing double yellow line (no waiting at any time) restrictions for 10 metres around junctions in the scheme area to improve sight lines and safety for pedestrians, including:
  • Bridgeway Street;
  • Aldenham Street;
  • Werrington Street
  • Polygon Road
• The cumulative impact of these double yellow line changes across the four locations is a loss of 18.7 metres of resident permit holder parking bays, 1.5 metres of motorcycle parking, and 6.5 metres of pay-by-phone parking bays. 198m of single yellow lines would be converted to double yellow lines.

• All of the above measures are proposed to be delivered as permanent changes.
• Further details about the proposed changes, locations, which vehicles qualify for an exemption and details on the existing trial Healthy School Street are provided in the drawings, information sheet, and monitoring factsheet, which can be found at the bottom of this webpage.

Why are we proposing to make the trial scheme permanent and to expand it to neighbouring streets?

We introduced a trial healthy school street outside St Mary and St Pancras school, on the section of Polygon Road between the junctions with Werrington Street and Chalton Street. This scheme came into force on 17^th June 2021 for an 18-month trial period, to improve road safety around the school and create safer spaces for walking and cycling.

During the trial period, we have been collecting monitoring data to assess how well the scheme is working. A full summary of this monitoring is provided in the monitoring factsheet in the ‘related’ section of the webpage.

• Whilst Polygon Road noted significant decreases in traffic levels, Aldenham Street had an increase in vehicles in the morning (27% increase), which this consultation proposal seeks to address.
• Engagement carried out with parents during the trial highlighted a need from some respondents for traffic levels to be reduced over a wider area to improve road safety and reduce the dominance of motor vehicles for the 95% of pupils that complete the school run by active modes of transport.
• In 2021, Blossom House School moved from their old site to a new site, on Aldenham Street. Blossom House and St Mary and St Pancras share a street, and we want to provide a safer environment for all students travelling to and from school with this set of proposals.

Scheme 2: Regent High Healthy School Street

This proposal includes:

• Creating a ‘timed’ closure on:
  • Chalton Street from the junction with Bridgeway Street northwards
  • Cranleigh Street from the junction of Chalton Street to the junction of Werrington Street.
• These closures would be in place Monday - Friday from 8am - 9:30am, and 3pm - 4pm, during school term times only. The closure will be enforced with signage, with access retained for residents and businesses.

• Introducing low level planting outside the entrance of Regent High.
• Introducing double yellow line (no waiting at any time) restrictions for 10 metres around junctions in the scheme area to improve sight lines and safety for pedestrians, including:

• Chalton Street;
• Bridgeway Street;
• Cranleigh Street; and
• Werrington Street

• The cumulative impact of these double yellow line changes across the four locations is a loss of 9.6 metres of resident permit holder parking bay and 6.6 metres of pay-by-phone parking bay. 120m of single yellow lines would be converted to double yellow lines.
• All of the above measures are proposed to be delivered as permanent changes.
• Further details about the proposed changes and locations, are provided in the drawings and information sheet which can be found at the bottom of this webpage.

Why are we proposing to introduce these changes?

• We want to ensure that children in all schools across Somers Town have the opportunity to travel to school by walking, cycling or wheeling where they can. We want to prevent vehicles from accessing the vicinity of the school site during the school-run hours to improve road safety and air quality and make encourage healthier travel choices to and from school. 
• We engaged with Regent High School, who told us that students walking out into Chalton Street while crossing the road towards Bridgeway Street was a road safety concern. To address this, we are proposing low level planting to create a barrier between the school entrance and the road, while improving the look and feel of Chalton Street.

Scheme 3: Edith Neville Primary School Healthy School Street

This proposal includes:

• Creating a ‘timed’ closure on:

• Purchese Street from the junction with Brill Place to the junction with Chenies Place; and
  • Charrington Street, from the junction with Platt Street southwards.

• These closures would be in place Monday-Friday from 8am - 9:30am, and 3pm - 4pm, during school term times only. The closure would be enforced with signage and (the potential for) ANPR cameras, with access retained for residents.
• Introducing double yellow line (no waiting at any time) restrictions for 10 metres (removing single yellow lines) to improve sight lines and safety for pedestrians around the junction of:
  • Charrington Street with Platt Street, with no changes to parking bays.
  • 40m of single yellow lines would be converted to double yellow lines.

• All of the above measures are proposed to be delivered as permanent changes.
• Further details about the proposed changes and locations, are provided in the drawings and information sheet which can be found at the bottom of this webpage.

Why are we proposing to introduce these changes?

• We want to ensure that children in all schools across Somers Town have the opportunity to travel to school by walking, cycling or wheeling where they can. We want to prevent vehicles from accessing the vicinity of the school site during the school-run hours to improve road safety and air quality and make encourage healthier travel choices to and from school. 

Some vehicles will be exempt from the restrictions. Further information on who can apply for an exemption is provided in the information sheet, which can be found in the related section at the bottom of this page.

Proposed cycle hangar installations on Aldenham Street, Chalton Street and Purchese Street:

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

In order to provide secure cycle parking for local residents, we are also therefore consulting on introducing the following proposals on a permanent basis, alongside the Healthy School Street proposals shown above:

• To install two cycle hangars outside St Michael’s Flats on Aldenham Street (resulting in the loss of 5.5 metres of pay-by-phone parking bay) and provide secure cycle parking for up to 12 cycles for local residents;
• To install two cycle hangars outside number 35-42 Chalton Street (resulting in the loss of 5.5 metres of resident permit holder parking bay) and provide secure cycle parking for up to 12 cycles for local residents; and
• To install two cycle hangars outside numbers 40-42 Purchese Street (resulting in the loss of 5.5 metres of pay-by-phone parking bay) and provide secure cycle parking for up to 12 cycles for local residents.

Photo of cycle hangars, which are proposed to be installed on Aldenham Street, Chalton Street and Purchese Street

Why your views matter

As 69% of households in Camden do not own a car and public transport usage remains much lower than before the pandemic, we know that safe and easy walking, cycling, and scooting routes are more important than ever. Supporting and encouraging those who can walk and cycle, by creating safer streets will ensure that there is more space available on public transport and on our roads for those who need it the most.

Through the Somers Town Future Neighbourhoods work, we are keen to work with the community, including local residents and other stakeholders to inform the measures that are taken forward through the fund, and this consultation is one part of that commitment.

The previous Healthy School Street measures on Polygon Road 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 whether or not to retain, remove or amend the trial scheme after the 18-month trial period. This consultation meets that commitment as well as seeking views on a wider set of proposals as shown above and in the supporting information.

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. You can share your views by filling on the consultation questionnaire by Sunday 23^rd October 2022, a link to this is provided at the bottom of this page.

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 (i) at the end of the trial period, the experimental scheme should be made permanent, modified, or allowed to lapse, and (ii) about the proposed new permanent scheme elements set out above.