School Streets: Cheam Common Infants and Junior Academy (Kingsmead Avenue)

Overview

We want to make the streets outside our schools safer and the air cleaner for our children.

To help achieve this, we are trialling School Streets in a number of areas across the borough. A School Street is where the road outside a school is closed to motor vehicles during school drop-off and pick-up times except for residents living in that street.

What are the details of the scheme? 

From Monday 19 October 2020 Kingsmead Avenue between Balmoral Road and Dalmeny Road will only be open to pedestrians and cycles on Monday - Friday mornings (8.15-8.45am) and afternoons (2.45-3.30pm). This will be during school term times only.

Residents of Kingsmead Avenue, Knolls Close and Abingdon Close are exempt from the restrictions, and will be able to enter and leave during the restricted times. However, please remember to exercise extreme caution if driving during these times, as parents and children may be walking in the road. There is no need to register your vehicle for this scheme.

Further details:

• Residents will be able to enter and leave during the restricted times, but motor vehicles driven by parents, visitors, and delivery vehicles will not be permitted to use their vehicles within the zone during the closure times.
• Any vehicle already in the zone during the closure will be permitted to exit the street without receiving a penalty.
• The zone will be clearly indicated by traffic signs on either side of Kingsmead Avenue.
• The scheme will initially be ‘self-enforced’ (the road will be enforced periodically by Civil Enforcement Officers and this type of scheme relies on the goodwill of parents and carers to respect the restrictions and park away from the school street zone) but barriers and marshals will be deployed where there is staff capacity to do so to ensure parents do not enter. 

Why we are consulting

Many local people have really enjoyed the lower levels of traffic and improved air quality during the recent lockdown. We also know that children are among the most adversely affected by high air pollution levels. To help continue these benefits, and improve the health and wellbeing of children in the borough, we are trialling School Streets. 

School Streets will help support our ambitious aims to tackle air pollution and encourage people to be more active. This scheme has been developed based on feedback from residents and the school and aims to address:

• Congestion and poor parking around the school 
• Parked vehicles with their engines running, contributing to air pollution, and 
• Road safety and lower traffic speeds

The School Street will help make the road safer and calmer for pupils at school start and finish times. Parents who drive to the school will be requested to park further away.

Where can I find out more?

For more information about this and other improvements we are implementing to make our borough’s streets safer, more active and greener, go to sutton.gov.uk/saferstreets.

Tell us your views! 

All of these changes will be for a six-month trial period. During this time, we will welcome all feedback from residents about how the scheme is working and how it can be improved.  We know change can take some getting used to and ask that you allow some time for the scheme to bed in as it can take a while for everyone to adapt to the changes. The scheme can be modified or removed before the end of the six-month trial if it does not work well for the local area. 

To have your say, please start the consultation below.