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Car-free family days out for half term

Updated: 19 May 2024

Entertaining children and enjoying family time together doesn’t have to come with the stress and financial cost of driving: being stuck in traffic congestion, searching for a parking spot, and paying sky-high fuel prices.

Here are seven ideas for family activities and destinations that can be reached using Bromley’s rail or bus networks. Please share any recommendations of your own in the comments.

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admin Bromley Council, Schools

Public questions – Bromley Council Environment Committee Special Meeting, Call in: Review of School Streets, 15 July 2022

Questions from the Public for Written Response:

1) Can the committee explain its decision not to support School Streets given that the main issues seemed to be a small group of complaints and some associated costs which could potentially be met elsewhere? Bromley currently has 6 school streets identified (https://www.bromley.gov.uk/cycling-walking-school/school-streets) for 82 primary schools. Our neighbours in Croydon have 14 permanent and 21 under consideration across 72 primary schools.
Why is Bromley unable to support this if other boroughs can?
What other measure for our children does the council intend to take that focus on hub areas like schools rather than borough wide initiatives?

Continue reading “Public questions – Bromley Council Environment Committee Special Meeting, Call in: Review of School Streets, 15 July 2022” →
admin Bromley Council, Schools

School Streets Showdown in Bromley

A special meeting of Bromley Council’s Environment Committee will be held at 9am on Friday 15 July 2022. This meeting has one agenda item: the future of School Streets in London Borough of Bromley. If you’re a Bromley resident, do this now:

  1. Send an email to committee.services@bromley.gov.uk, including a 50 word question on School Streets (see below for more ideas about questions to ask), and explain your question is for the Environment Committee meeting on Friday 15 July. Questions must be received by 5pm on Monday 11 July.
  2. Write to your councillors (your elected representatives in local government) today to ask them why Bromley came 27th out of 33 London Boroughs in the 2022 Healthy Streets Scorecard (published on 5 July 2022), and what they intend to do about it. If one of your councillors is Cllr Thomas Turrell (councillor for Hayes and Coney Hall), you might want to ask him why he didn’t voice his support for Hayes Primary School Street at the Environment Committee meeting on 21 June, given that this School Street is in his ward, and he was present at the meeting.
  3. If you’re free 9am til 10am on Friday 15 July, fill out this form to register to attend the Environment Committee meeting on School Streets. We’ll see you there.

Why now?

At the Environment meeting on 21 June, a fractious debate took place over the council’s review of School Streets. On 24 June, Cllr Nicholas Bennett (Portfolio Holder for Transport) decided Bromley Council will not actively roll out School Streets in the borough. The following Friday (1 July), Bromley Labour and Bromley Liberal Democrats both independently “called in” this decision. This means the decision goes back to the Environment Committee to reconsider. This is happening on Friday 15 July, and that’s why we hope as many Bromley residents as possible will submit questions to this meeting or attend it in person.

What happens at a call in?

A “call in” meeting revisits a decision made by Bromley Council. Historically, call in meetings in Bromley provide a valuable opportunity to show the strength of feeling on an issue. For example, the call in meeting on the decision to relocate Beckenham Library took place during working hours on a weekday, but the public gallery was packed.

It is worth noting that it is not only opposition parties who call in decisions. For example, Bromley Conservative councillors previously called in a decision on the Crofton Road cycle way.

What is a School Street?

You can find out more by clicking one of these links:

Bromley Living Streets’ briefing on school streets

Mums for lungs

Living Streets

http://schoolstreets.org.uk/

Questions that can be submitted by residents to the call in meeting

  1. ANPR camera enforcement is used for all School Streets in Islington (where 49% of schools have School Streets), Hackney (45%), and Bromley’s neighbour Lewisham. Bromley hasn’t trialled ANPR for School Streets, on grounds of cost, but elsewhere ANPR cameras generate revenue. Will Bromley Council now trial ANPR for School Streets?
  2. Bromley has the highest % of trips made by car in the whole of London at 53%, and a target within the Mayor’s Transport Strategy to reduce this to 40%. Given the School Streets decision, can the Portfolio Holder now provide an indication of how this target will be reached?

admin Bromley Council

New Year, New Environment Committee Meeting!

Happy New Year! Can you spare 5 minutes today to send a question to Bromley Council Environment Committee? There’s no time to lose: questions need to be submitted by 5pm on 5 January to be accepted for the committee meeting on 19 January – full details of how to submit questions can be found here, and information about the meeting can be found here. 

Bromley Council’s Environment and Community Services PDS Committee examines executive decisions and reviews policy on transport (highways development, traffic, road safety and parking), street services, waste and recycling and parks and open spaces. We in Bromley Living Streets think that asking questions to the Environment Committee is a very valuable way to let the Council know what matters to local people – particularly important to do now, given that local elections are taking place on 5 May 2022. Environment Committee meetings are the place where Bromley Council’s projects and policies are scrutinised, and members of the public raising issues in this forum is an important part of local democracy and a key way of encouraging local councillors to take action.

So what should you ask questions about? That’s up to you, but we have some ideas you might want to consider. Below we present some ideas for questions relating to active travel and safe streets across the borough, including pedestrian crossings, air pollution, school streets, speed limits, Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) statistics and COP26. We also encourage you to look at the Council’s Environment Matters newsletter (available here) and take this opportunity to ask the Council for clarification or evidence on the topics and claims contained in the newsletter.

Feel free to Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) us into your email when you submit your questions, or forward your submitted questions to us after sending them to committee.services@bromley.gov.uk, so that we are aware of the issues that have been raised.

Potential topics and questions:

Pedestrian crossings

  1. Bromley’s Air Quality Action Plan was approved at the November 2021 Environment Committee meeting. On the final page of Appendix A, under “Reducing emissions from transport”, it is stated that a target for the number of new pedestrian crossings will be established – when, and based on what evidence?

Air pollution

  1. Bromley’s Air Quality Action Plan (approved in November 2021) claims no schools in Bromley are exposed to NO2 concentrations that exceed annual limits (page 8). Maps available on the London Air website suggest otherwise. Please set out all the evidence, with references where appropriate, upon which this claim is made.

School Streets

  1. In July 2021, 500+ School Streets were in place across London. Bromley Council’s website states the borough has 4, but it’s now 3. Given demand from Bromley parents, and evidence of health benefits, road danger reduction, and improved independent mobility for children, will the Council commit to more trials now?
  2. What would be the cost of one ANPR vehicle to provide enforcement of Bromley School Streets, for one hour at start and finish of the school day for the entire Spring term, and could this cost be covered by the money Bromley Council received from TfL to provide School Streets?
  3. The Portfolio Holder has previously stated the three schools on Hawksbrook Lane “were very keen” to have a School Street, but this has not been installed due to “the potential number of vehicle movements which still could occur”.  Please provide the evidence base that informed this decision.

Speed limits

  1. In response to previous questions, the Portfolio Holder stated the borough’s experience is that drivers who ignore 30mph limits ignore lower speed limits, and drivers are much more likely to change behaviour where reduced speeds are advised near a clear hazard or justification. Please provide evidence to support this.
  2. In a Council meeting on 6 December 2021, Councillor Tickner described 20mph speed limits as “socialist”. Does the Portfolio Holder agree with this characterisation?

Net carbon zero target

  1. The ‘COP26 Special Edition’ of Environment Matters states that “Bromley has always been London’s greenest borough and we have one of the most ambitious net carbon zero targets in the Capital.” Please set out all the evidence, with references where appropriate, upon which this claim is made.

Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) statistics

  1. The latest edition of Environment Matters states the 28% reduction in Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) casualties in 2020 is “perhaps partly explained” by “lockdown”. Would the Portfolio Holder agree that it is very likely that the 19% reduction in vehicle miles travelled in the borough is a factor? (19% figure calculated using DfT statistics from 2019 and 2020, available here)

Please do get in touch with any questions, suggestions, feedback, or if you’d like us to put you in touch with other Bromley Living Streets members living in your neighbourhood.

Best wishes for the New Year from Bromley Living Streets

Graffiti on a tree in Church House Gardens, Bromley. Photo by Brendan.