Torriano Avenue School Street Greening and Safety Improvements Consultation

Overview

We are seeking your views on proposals to create safer, healthier streets for residents and visitors to this area, particularly the children, parents, carers and staff travelling to Torriano Primary school. 

We want our streets to have more safe space for everyone to walk and cycle, for children to get to and from school safely and healthily, for businesses to be able to flourish, to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles and for you to be breathing cleaner air.

Policy background

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.

We propose to introduce Healthy School Street (HSS) Greening and Safety Improvements on Torriano Avenue near Torriano Primary School. The programme of HSSs aims to deliver Objective 1 of the Camden Transport Strategy, to transform our streets for walking and cycling.

What are Main Road Healthy School Streets?

Healthy School Streets are designed to create a safer and more inviting environment around schools enabling more children to walk, cycle or scoot to school. To date we have 30 schemes in the borough covering 35 schools, so far mainly involving traffic reduction measures on residential or local streets. We are now planning a programme of schemes for schools located on “main roads” to further improve road safety and the street environment in those locations. As part of the Healthy School Street measures for Torriano Primary School we are proposing to widen the pavements and plant trees and plants to help reduce the dominance of traffic and to make the area around Torriano Primary School safer and more pedestrian friendly. It is not possible to introduce typical Healthy School Street motor vehicle restrictions on Torriano Avenue as this is a main road and bus route.  

History of the changes

In 2021 changes were made to Torriano Avenue under an Experimental Traffic Order (ETO) with traffic calming measures, wider pavements and a dedicated bus lane close to Torriano Primary School. These changes were then made permanent in 2022.

Data collected as part of the 2021 scheme shows that 7,000 vehicles a day (between 6am and 10pm) use this section of Torriano Avenue outside the school.  This equates to nearly 450 vehicles an hour.  There are also 2 high frequency bus routes on Torriano Avenue - route 390 and route 393. This creates a traffic dominated environment directly outside the school. The pavements near the school are also particularly narrow with limited plants and trees.

About the proposed School Street Greening and Safety Improvements on Torriano Avenue 

The proposals outlined below would add to previous improvements on Torriano Avenue to make the area around Torriano Primary School safer and more pedestrian friendly. They are also informed by feedback from pupils, parents and teachers of Torriano Primary School. We are proposing to:

• Plant trees and plants on both sides of Torriano Avenue between Busby Place and Torriano Cottages near to Torriano Primary school, to improve the look and feel of the street and make it more inviting. The planting areas would include rain gardens. These are areas of plants which soak up rainwater helping to prevent local flooding and improve local biodiversity (see photo example). This would include the removal of 44 metres of resident permit holder parking.

 Example of Rain Gardens

• Install 2 cycle hangars an e-scooter and a cycle hire parking bay on the eastern side of Torriano Avenue to make it easier to travel sustainably by providing places to store and hire these green transport options. This would include the removal of 12 metres of resident permit holder parking.

• Widen the pavement by approximately 2 metres on the western side of Torriano Avenue next to the existing bus stop and reposition the bus stop (bus stop U) closer to the road to improve pedestrian accessibility. 

• Introduce continuous pavements which indicate pedestrian priority across 2 vehicle entrances to the school and the vehicle entrance to the Torriano Estate to improve pedestrian accessibility, particularly for people accessing the school. See photo example below.

• Install benches outside the entrance to Torriano Primary School to create a welcoming space and gathering area for parents and carers.

The proposals would be implemented, if approved following consultation, as a permanent scheme.

The proposed scheme would result in total in the loss of 56 metres of residents’ parking. Our parking pressure data for this street shows there is enough residential parking capacity on Torriano Avenue to facilitate this change as there are 83 residential parking spaces and 66 resident permits as existing resulting in a parking pressure of 80%. If the proposed scheme was introduced there would be 72 residential parking spaces and 66 resident permits resulting in parking pressure of 92%. The parking pressure for the wider CPZ (CA-M) would remain below 73%.

A drawing for the proposed changes can be found in the Related section at the bottom of this page.

Why your views matter

This is your opportunity to comment

We want to hear your views on the proposals, as well as any alternative suggestions you may have on any aspect of what we are proposing. For information on how we will use data collected from this consultation read our privacy statement: Data protection, privacy and cookies - Camden Council

The consultation responses as well as data collected and our policies will inform the decision on whether to go ahead with our proposals.