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Disappearing planters! Three reasons this is bad news for the High Street and bad news for residents

“Boy with binoculars”: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boy-with-binoculars.png

Bromley Council has removed planters enabling social distancing on Beckenham High Street and near Bromley South, reinstating a small number of parking spaces. Please write to your elected representatives today to let them know why this is a bad idea, and submit questions to the Portfolio Holder at the next Environment committee meeting (info on how to do this can be found here). The website WriteToThem will give you contact details for your MP, Councillors, and GLA representatives.

Why is it a bad idea to remove the planters now?

  1. Social distancing. The planters were introduced to enable social distancing – we shouldn’t make it harder for people on the High Streets to social distance, especially given that just a week ago a senior Government scientist and SAGE member warned that the UK is about to enter “an extended peak” of infections and hospitalisations.
  2. Pedestrian Pound. Local businesses have had a hard couple of years, and evidence suggests that making it easier for people to access shops on foot is one of the best ways to increase footfall (a common measure of business performance) – it has been estimated that walking and other non-motorised transport projects typically increase retail sales by 30% (see page 23 of Living Streets’ Pedestrian Pound report, 2018).
  3. Climate Change, Air Quality and Congestion. We desperately need to support people to make more short, local journeys on foot rather in the car, to reduce our carbon footprint, to clean up our air and to reduce traffic on our roads. Current trends indicate massive increase in vehicle miles in Bromley borough, the annual traffic by motor vehicles has increased from 800 million to a billion between 2009 and 2019.  As we have noted before, this means that unless we support people to get out of their cars and travel on foot or bicycle where possible, the future of Bromley’s roads is traffic jams, and congestion is bad news for anyone travelling by road.
Beckenham High Street: Planters removed, three parking spaces reinstated
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Schools out

Photo taken by Bromley Living Streets – Raglan Primary School, Bromley

As summer term 2021 draws to an end, we at Bromley Living Streets have been reflecting on the last school year. What improvements have we seen in Bromley since September that are enabling children to safely actively travel to school and where is there need for so much more to be done?

We have seen the implementation of 6 school streets across the borough although funding was obtained by Bromley Council for 11 – we are eagerly awaiting to see 5 more schools to be set up with school streets, will this happen in Autumn term 2021? Aware that more needs to be done in the borough to improve road safety for our children in September 2021, we launched our first Bromley Schools Travel Survey. Our survey was issued to all Schools in the London Borough of Bromley and we received 5,464 responses from 89 Schools.

What we asked

  1. What school does your child go to? 
  2. How will your child travel to school in September 2020? 
  3. Do you have any concerns about how your child will travel to school in September 2020? 

Our findings

The good news is that 42% of respondents are already actively travelling (walking, scooting and cycling) to and from school. Yet the survey results still demonstrate that more than half are relying upon cars or buses as their means of travel.  

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Responses to: How will your child travel to school in September 2020?

We asked parents and carers, ‘Do you have any concerns about how your child will travel to school in September 2020?’ For those who are travelling by car 54% did not provide any comments but those that did cited the following concerns providing insight as to why they choose to travel by car; 

  • traffic and road safety
  • cycle lanes and cycle safety
  • Covid-19 
  • bus capacity and availability

What were the top concerns?

#1 Bus Capacity and Availability

A concern raised predominantly by parents/carers with children in secondary school education. Comments provided at the time showed that children were waiting up to 40 minutes for a bus both on the way to and from school due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. 

“…it seems there is not enough buses because the ones that are running just keep going straight past the bus stop because they are full or they are not allowing school children on.” 

“…the buses have been refusing to take them I’ve been there and seen it. There are no extra buses on our route, the buses either stop and refuse to take them or the drive straight past.” 

“We have been having problems with my daughter being able to get a bus home. Twice last week the buses drove past them. So I had to go and collect her….” 

“buses will be packed….more cars will be on the road and the war memorial junction in Chislehurst is dangerous enough at present even before more cars and the kids coming home later during local traffic rush hour.” 

#2 Traffic and Road Safety

‘Traffic and Road Safety’ concerns highlighted by parents and carers when responding to our survey indicated that this is the main deterrent to children choosing to either walk or cycle to school.   

“We like the idea on travelling by bicycle to school but the lack of save cycling on parts of the A21 holds us back“

“Because of covid we are driving. He could cycle if there were cycle lanes“

“I wish there were proper bike route from Bromley centre to Ravenswood. Since there isn’t , my son will use the bus which is often overflowed and at times he gets to school late as the driver do not open the door.” 

“I would like her to travel to school by bicycle (when she starts secondary), but the roads are too unsafe without me“

“Extremely busy roads near the school – many ‘almost’ accidents” 

“Traffic is crazy on the school roads and pavement space is limited. I’m always so worried that a child will end up in the road one day!“

“…I will now take him as restrictions on buses & road to school unsuitable to ride a bike or walk“

“I wish it was safe for my children. To cycle to school. I hate adding to the pollution.“

“Tylney Road is a ticking time bomb for a child to get hit by a car. With the lining up against the fence to get through the gates, adults and children are constantly having to walk into the busy road on Tylney Road. ” 

So what next?

You may be wondering – so what? We know traffic and road safety is a huge concern from Bromley residents but what are you doing with the information you have gathered?

  1. Results were shared with some of the 89 schools with the highest responses to help inform actions on their School Travel Plans.
  2. We have used the results to inform our areas of focus within the Borough, targeting areas where the highest number of concerns have been raised.
  3. We’re sharing the results with you! What are your concerns? Could you start a local community conversation about this if so Bromley Living Streets would be very happy to talk to you, your school or community group about what can be done locally – we have been doing this for the past 3 years. You can also ask your councillors what action they are taking and why they aren’t creating more school streets.
  4. Get in touch with us, about your school and we are happy to provide you with a “bite-size” summary of the results, as well as provide support on next steps you could take to promote change for enabling safer active travel to school.

Contact us

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Bromley Living Streets launch – June 2019

Bromley Living Streets is a group of residents campaigning for safer, quieter, low-traffic neighbourhoods which encourage healthier walking, cycling and cleaner air. It is affiliated to “Living Streets”, the UK charity for everyday walking.

Bromley Living Streets’ inaugural event drew over 70 people to Bromley Central Library on Monday 3rd June, 2019. 

Catherine Maguire from the Clean Air Parents’ Network spoke about how poor air quality can lead to health problems – particularly the impact on children.  Councillor Will Harmer and Alexander Baldwin-Smith (senior transport planner in Bromley) updated the meeting on Bromley Council’s policy, Jeremy Leach from London Living Streets spoke on the positive impact of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (groups of residential streets where ‘cut-through’ traffic is discouraged), and Annie Miller from Sustrans stressed the importance of community engagement.   The wide range of questions and issues raised showed the importance of holding such events to engage residents with a sense of ownership of such improvement projects.  A number of innovative ideas were raised, showing the appetite for improvement.

Bromley Living Streets chair, Dr Brendan Donegan, said of the event “I was hugely excited to see so many people turn up for the event.   In recent years, Bromley has taken great strides in making streets safer and more attractive for those on foot.  The successful Shortlands Liveable Neighbourhood bid and the town centre scheme in Beckenham shows that people and not just cars are valued in Bromley. I believe this event will be the start of so much more”

Bromley Living Streets will be looking for interested residents to work on the next part of the campaign.

Any reader interested in setting up a Low Traffic Neighbourhood in their ward,  contact Bromley Living Streets on Bromleygroup@livingstreets.org.uk, or via the contact form on this website.