St Luke's School - Kidderpore Avenue Safe and Healthy Streets consultation

Overview

We are seeking your views on proposals to make the temporary pavement widening outside the school permanent, and your ideas for other road safety and public realm improvements outside the school that we could consider in future consultations.

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.

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.

To help respond to the transport challenges on our streets caused by the pandemic, and in line with our Camden Transport Strategy, Climate Action Plan and Clean Air Action Plan, we have been making changes across Camden as part of our Safe and Healthy Streets Programme.

About the St Luke’s Church of England School Safe and Healthy Streets scheme

The St Luke’s Church of England School Safe and Healthy Streets scheme consists of a widened pavement on Kidderpore Avenue outside the school. This included replacing 25 metres of shared use parking bay (permit holders and pay to park) with double yellow lines. The objectives of the scheme were to aid with social distancing for pupils and parents/carers and to improve road safety outside the entrance to the school.

The scheme was requested by a representative at St Luke’s Church of England School, who contacted the Council regarding the situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was noted that the School was experiencing difficulties with maintaining social distancing outside the entrance/exit to the school. Road safety issues caused by parked cars restricting visibility of pupils and parents/carers crossing Kidderpore Avenue were also raised.

We implemented the St Luke’s Church of England School pavement widening scheme as a temporary measure in May 2020, under a Temporary Traffic Order (TTO) which is in place between the 12^th April 2021 and 20^th March 2022, as part of our School Road Safety Programme. The decision report related to this TTO (and the TTO for 2 other schools) was approved on 3^rd February 2020 and is provided in the Related section at the bottom of this page.

The approved scheme involved widening the northern pavement of Kidderpore Avenue for a 25-metre section directly outside the main entrance to the School. The widening was achieved through the temporary extension of the existing pavement, introducing new 150mm wide concrete kerbs offset between 1.3 to 2 metres from the existing kerb line, with the gap between the previous and new kerbs infilled with asphalt (tarmac).

A new “school sign” was also erected on an existing lighting column to increase driver awareness that they are approaching a school. This sign will remain in place permanently, regardless of the outcome of this public consultation.

The decision report noted that a further consultation, after around 5 months of the temporary scheme being constructed, would take place relating to any proposed permanent changes. The temporary scheme went live in May 2020 and during this period, comments received from the school, local residents and stakeholders have been monitored.

This consultation now asks the school, local residents and stakeholders to give their views on whether the St Luke’s Church of England School temporary pavement widening scheme should be made permanent. The proposed permanent scheme would remain unchanged from its temporary version.

What we are now consulting on?

Based on officer observations and the feedback received from the school, 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 as follows:

• Keeping the widened pavement outside the school on Kidderpore Avenue.
• Keeping the double yellow lines adjacent to the widened pavement outside the school on Kidderpore Avenue. The yellow lines replaced 25 metres of shared use parking bay (permit holders and pay to park).

You can view the drawing of the changes in the Related section at the bottom of this page.

The proposed permanent scheme, if approved, would remain unchanged from its trial version.

We are also using this opportunity to gather your views on whether you would like us to investigate any other changes which could make the area around St Luke’s School safer and healthier, beyond the pavement widening proposal. This could include, for example, a “Healthy School Street” (timed road closure at school opening and closing times) on the north-western section of Kidderpore Avenue or widening other sections of pavement locally. Other improvements could include traffic speed reduction measures, trees and other planting, cycle parking facilities (including bike hangars) or seating. Further details on Healthy School Streets in Camden can be viewed here. We will carefully analyse recommendations and, where feasible and subject to funding, carry out separate consultations on such measures going forward.

Why your views matter

As 40% of households in the area do not have access to a car and public transport patronage levels remain 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 are able to 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.

The previous changes were implemented as a temporary measure under a TTO. We committed to undertaking a public consultation after around 5 months of the temporary scheme being constructed to seek the views of the school, local residents and stakeholders on making the temporary scheme permanent.

Your views are important in providing feedback on the scheme, 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  at the bottom of this page,

The Council 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. The school, local residents and stakeholders will be notified of the outcome. The report will consider a broad range of information including officer observations, consultation responses, feedback received during the trial period, relevant policies, and other data/information.

All of this information will be considered in making a recommendation in the report about whether the temporary pavement widening measures should be made permanent, modified, or removed.