Healthy School Streets consultation -St Alban's Church of England School trial Proposals

Proposal drawings

In line with our Camden Transport Strategy, Climate Action Plan, and Clean Air Strategy and Clean Air Action Plan, and to continue supporting safe, healthy, and active travel, we have been making changes across Camden as part of our Safe and Healthy Streets Programme. In addition, the 2025-2028 CTS Delivery Plan outlines the Council’s commitment to continue to deliver Healthy School Streets with the vast majority of projects aimed to be delivered by 2026.

The recently implemented Safe and Healthy Street changes on Leather Lane reduce road danger and provide more space for people to walk and explore Leather Lane market. Further to these improvements, we are now seeking your views on our proposals to introduce a trial Healthy School Street (timed restrictions to motor vehicles) on Baldwin’s Gardens and Portpool Lane around St Alban’s Church of England primary school.  

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

There are now 31 HSS in the borough, 35 of those schools have timed or permanent road closures. The data that we have collected on these schemes has shown that they can: have a positive impact on reducing traffic levels outside schools, contribute to improved air quality and are often supported by pupils who want us to do more to improve their journey to school.

About the proposed St Alban’s Church of England primary school Healthy School Street

Recently, we introduced Safe and Healthy Streets changes on Leather Lane to make it safer and easier for people to choose sustainable ways to travel such as walking and cycling to access Leather Lane market, and businesses and schools in the area.  This project included closing Leather Lane to motor vehicles ‘at any time’ (with bollards) at the junction with Clerkenwell Road (except for cycles and emergency services) thereby reducing the volume of through-traffic, improving air quality and making the street safer and more pleasant for residents and visitors to the area.

The Leather Lane Safe and Healthy Streets project also included closing Baldwin’s Gardens to through motor vehicles ‘at any time’ at the junction with Leather Lane (except for cycles and emergency services).  Vehicles can still access Baldwin’s Gardens from Gray’s Inn Road as far the school entrance. There is also a gate on Portpool Lane near the junction with Leather Lane which prevents through traffic on that street, but similarly vehicles can still enter Portpool Lane from Gray’s Inn Road. 

Building upon the Leather Lane project, we are now proposing a HSS timed motor vehicle restrictions for St Alban’s school, on Baldwin’s Gardens and on Portpool Lane to make it safer for parents and children to walk, cycle or scoot to school, with more space to stop and chat, and to help deliver our wider aspirations for the area around Leather Lane. 

The visitors’/administrative entrance to the school is on Baldwin’s Gardens.  However, the main pupil entrance is situated in the Bourne Estate which can be accessed by vehicles from both Portpool Lane and Baldwin’s Gardens; so the proposed HSS scheme includes restrictions on both of these streets.

We have collected traffic count data at a number of locations in the area across an average week during school term time which shows that traffic levels on these streets are at their peak around school run times on some days.  Figure 1 below outlines data collected on Baldwin’s Gardens on the section where one of the school gates is located.

 Figure 1 –Baldwin’s Gardens average Weekday Daily Traffic Levels, week commencing 17/09/2024

For Baldwin’s Gardens, traffic data (in Figure 1) shows that traffic volumes increase during school drop off times in the morning at over 73 vehicles (weekday daily average). The traffic levels at school pick up times in the afternoon are lower. however, the data shows that traffic levels start to rise around afternoon school pick up times.   

Having carried out the above monitoring, and in line with our ambition to roll out HSS to all feasible schools by 2026, we are proposing a trial timed HSS scheme with motor vehicle restrictions on Baldwin’s Gardens and on Portpool Lane between 8.15am – 9.15am and 3pm – 4pm, Monday to Friday during school term times only.

The drawings showing the HSS restrictions can be found at the top of this page.

The proposed trial scheme would include relevant signage alerting all road users to the restrictions and ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) cameras for traffic enforcement at the start of each restricted section of the street. The trial HSS signage would state the times of the road closures and would be closed during school holidays.

We propose to trial the changes using an Experimental Traffic Order (ETO) for a period of up to 18 months, at which point a decision would be made whether to make the scheme permanent, remove it entirely, or keep it with some changes.

If the trial proposals are approved for implementation following this consultation, we would carefully monitor the impacts of the scheme through traffic volume monitoring on both the restricted roads and those nearby.

The following vehicles would be exempt from the timed HSS restrictions by applying for an exemption.

• Vehicles registered to properties and businesses on the sections of the streets within the timed restriction area (exemptions would need to be applied for and agreed with the Council)
• Vehicles belonging to parents with a Blue Badge who have a pupil attending St Alban’s Church of England School, or parents/carers of pupils of these Schools that have a disability that prevents them from walking, cycling, or scooting to school (exemptions would need to be agreed with the Council)
• Emergency services such as ambulance, fire brigade or police, Door to door services such as Plus Bus and Dial A Ride and refuse collection vehicles and other statutory services will be automatically exempt.

School staff and visitors to the schools would not be exempt. Taxis and delivery vehicles would not be exempt, and such trips would need to be scheduled outside of the restricted times, or the vehicles would need to be parked outside of the restricted area. However, exemptions can be applied for in exceptional circumstances, such as when elderly or disabled people may need essential taxi journeys during the restricted hours. All the requests for exemptions can be applied for by contacting the Healthy School Streets team over the phone or via email. If the project goes ahead, details of how to apply for an exemption will be posted to residents and businesses in the consultation area. 

The following photo shows an example of an existing HSS showing how the proposal could look. Similar signage is proposed to be installed as a part of this scheme. 

Other proposed permanent Safe and Healthy Street changes in the area

In addition to the above proposed trial timed HSS restrictions, we are also proposing additional permanent changes in the area to reduce traffic dominance, improve pedestrian and cycle accessibility, road safety and air quality, including:

• Installing two cycle hangars to provide secure cycle storage for residents on Baldwin’s Gardens by replacing a disabled bay that was dedicated to a specific individual and is no longer required. This would provide more secure and lockable parking facilities for bicycles and hired bicycles, encouraging more residents in Camden to travel by bike. Residents in this part of Camden have told us that they would like to have more lockable bike parking close to where they live. We know that a lack of somewhere covered and secure to keep bikes can discourage people from taking up cycling.
• Installing school keep clear lines on Baldwin’s Gardens in front of the school to prevent vehicles obstructing access to the school gate.
• Providing one cycle hangar and a Dockless Bike Hire parking bay on Portpool Lane by replacing two paid for parking bays. Dockless Bike Hire bays help users to pick up or drop off rental e-bikes and e-scooters, supporting and promoting sustainable modes as an alternative to motor vehicles.
• Installing five cycle parking stands on the pavement on Portpool Lane. This would provide more lockable bicycle parking.
• Installing double yellow lines on both sides of Portpool Lane to prevent parking near the junctions and the Estate entrances.

The above proposed changes can be viewed on the consultation drawing in the Related section at the top of this page.

The following photo shows an example of cycle hangars that provide covered, secure and lockable cycle parking on streets.