To Bromley Council leader Cllr Colin Smith and Portfolio Holder for Transport Cllr Nicholas Bennett,
Today sees the launch of the 2023 Healthy Streets Scorecard, the fifth annual release by the London Healthy Streets Coalition – a group of health, environment and transport campaigners. The media release associated with the scorecard mentions Bromley as one of the boroughs where further action is needed (1). London Borough of Bromley:
Is one of three London boroughs with less than 10% of appropriate streets covered by a 20mph speed limit
Is bottom of the table for parking controls, controlling parking on fewer than 10% of streets
Is named in the media release as having little or no priority for buses, in contrast to many boroughs with 40 to 50% of routes prioritised for buses (with bus lanes or similar)
The Bromley results conclude with the statement that “without serious ambition from the council, Bromley will continue to languish at the bottom end of the Scorecard” (2).
The Healthy Streets Scorecard shows to what extent London Boroughs are putting in place six key measures which will dramatically improve air quality and road safety, boost active lifestyles and reduce carbon emissions (3). Bromley Council’s Portfolio Holder for Transport, Councillor Nicholas Bennett, has recently stated publicly that “Bromley does not recognise the value of most measures included in the Healthy Streets Scorecard” (4).
We are publishing this open letter to encourage a large, broad and diverse range of Bromley stakeholders to come together to collectively ask Cllrs Smith and Bennett two questions:
If Bromley residents establish an independent road safety forum as a broad, diverse, inclusive body to replace the Council’s Road Safety Panel which Cllr Bennett disbanded (5), will you engage with this body?
Why does Bromley Council not see value in many of the measures included in the Healthy Streets Scorecard?
To Bromley Council leader Cllr Colin Smith and Portfolio Holder for Transport Cllr Nicholas Bennett,
Today sees the launch of the 2023 Healthy Streets Scorecard, the fifth annual release by the London Healthy Streets Coalition – a group of health, environment and transport campaigners. The media release associated with the scorecard mentions Bromley as one of the boroughs where further action is needed (1). London Borough of Bromley
is one of three London boroughs with less than 10% of appropriate streets covered by a 20mph speed limit
is bottom of the table for parking controls, controlling parking on fewer than 10% of streets
is named in the media release as having little or no priority for buses, in contrast to many boroughs with 40 to 50% of routes prioritised for buses (with bus lanes or similar)
The Bromley results conclude with the statement that “without serious ambition from the council, Bromley will continue to languish at the bottom end of the Scorecard” (2).
The Healthy Streets Scorecard shows to what extent London Boroughs are putting in place six key measures which will dramatically improve air quality and road safety, boost active lifestyles and reduce carbon emissions (3). Bromley Council’s Portfolio Holder for Transport, Councillor Nicholas Bennett, has recently stated publicly that “Bromley does not recognise the value of most measures included in the Healthy Streets Scorecard” (4).
We are publishing this open letter to encourage a large, broad and diverse range of Bromley stakeholders to come together to collectively ask Cllrs Smith and Bennett two questions:
If Bromley residents establish an independent road safety forum as a broad, diverse, inclusive body to replace the Council’s Road Safety Panel which Cllr Bennett disbanded (5), will you engage with this body?
Why does Bromley Council not see value in many of the measures included in the Healthy Streets Scorecard?
We would be grateful if Cllrs Smith and Bennett could please indicate their response to these questions in a public statement, circulated on social media channels.
We are asking these questions because we would like to work collaboratively with Bromley Council to improve Bromley’s streets for all road users. We see something collaborative like this forum as a space where new solutions could be discussed and support for planned improvements could be strengthened.
If you lead a community organisation, business, school, church or faith-based group and would like to add your organisation’s name to the letter, please email us at bromleygroup AT livingstreets.org.uk
If you would like to add your name to the letter as an individual, please click the link below to sign the letter via openletter.earth. We are using an external platform for individual signatures to ensure that GDPR privacy regulations are adhered to:
Please note – the platform will send you a confirmation email to validate your email address, check your spam folder if this doesn’t appear in your Inbox.
Please consider sharing this letter on social media to spread the word to other residents, businesses and community organisations.
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.
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.
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:
The local elections brought in a number of new councillors to represent wards across Bromley. As shown below, the main changes were Liberal Democrat councillors in Beckenham Town & Copers Cope and Bromley Town, Labour councillors in Plaistow and St Mary Cray, and the independent party Chislehurst Matters in Chislehurst. Bromley remains Conservative-controlled with a majority of 14 councillors. Many wards that remained Conservative also had new ward councillors selected.
What does this mean for ongoing community-led efforts to improve the safety and liveability of our streets? The good news is that many new councillors take a supportive stance on safer streets, air pollution, encouraging walking and cycling, and climate change. Moreover, the range of councillors elected promises vibrant debate on many topics.
CLEAN AIR Bromley Liberal Democrats supported Mums for Lungs election pledges, which included a call for a clean air cabinet member, a diesel-free borough by 2030, advocacy to phase out wood burning and the goal of delivering a School Street at every school by 2025 (with an alternative package of road safety measures where temporary road closures are not feasible).
SUPPORT FOR CYCLING Bromley Liberal Democrats, Bromley Labour, Bromley Greens and Chislehurst Matters all supported Bromley Cyclists’ call for the development and implementation of an active travel strategy designed to increase the cycling trip share in Bromley from 1.8% to 5% by 2026/7. While the Conservatives did not provide a formal endorsement, Councillor Michael Tickner (Beckenham Town & Copers Cope ward) crucially acknowledged by email that: “safe cycle-friendly infrastructure has to be provided first in order for more people to take up cycling, not the other way round”.
CLIMATE ACTION Bromley Liberal Democrats, Bromley Labour and Bromley Green Party supported a coalition of community and faith-based groups calling for Bromley Council to declare a climate emergency and produce a plan to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for all activities across the borough. Climate action, active travel and road safety are tightly-linked issues as reaching net-zero will require a large shift towards walking, cycling and public transport use in Bromley.
In addition to this, all parties covered issues related to air quality, safer streets and more support for walking and cycling for all, such as the lack of a safe crossing at Chislehurst War Memorial, the lack of safe crossings on South Eden Park Road, and concerns over safety raised in the 2020 School Travel Survey conducted by Bromley Living Streets.
So what changes can we expect to see, and how can local communities support all ward councillors to give Bromley residents more sustainable travel choices and cleaner air? In this blog post we set out four priorities for change and four things that you can do to support councillors.
FOUR PRIORITIES FOR ACTION
1. Safe pedestrian crossings Local centres across Bromley should have pedestrian crossings – either zebra or signalised crossings – to create safe walking routes to local parks, schools, high streets, and public facilities. These routes should be provided pro-actively, instead of waiting for a minimum number of casualties to justify a crossing at any given location.
2. A cycle network Bromley lacks a joined-up network of separated cycle lanes across the borough, which is a major barrier to cycling for many residents. A network of protected cycle lanes connecting local centres across the borough will make it safer to switch to cycling as a low-cost travel option that reduces air pollution, congestion, and increases daily exercise.
3. Measures to reduce speeding Until now Bromley Council has only taken limited action on speeding, often deferring responsibility to the Metropolitan Police and installing advisory warning signs that make only minimal difference to driver behaviour. Traffic calming measures should be introduced to reduce vehicle speeds and improve road safety.
4. School Streets A School Street is a temporary restriction on motor vehicle traffic outside schools during drop-off and pick-up hours, to improve air quality and traffic safety at the school gate, and encourage parents to walk or cycle instead of driving. Over 500 School Streets have been introduced in London, mostly since the start of the pandemic. Bromley Council received funding from TfL for 11 School Streets but only six have been implemented so far.
FOUR WAYS TO ACTIVELY SUPPORT CHANGE
1. Make your voice heard Your ward councillors are accountable to you, and you can write to them to ask for stronger action to make it safer to walk and cycle locally. Walking and cycling schemes can be sensitive when they impact things like on-street parking or right-of-way for drivers, so it’s important that councillors hear from those supporting change. You can copy your local residents’ association and Bromley Living Streets in on correspondence with councillors. Additionally, you can submit questions to Bromley Council to raise concerns at its Environment Committee public meeting. You can also subscribe to newsletters from Bromley Living Streets to stay up to date.
2. Start small Alongside campaigns calling for safer streets, we can also push for change by working with the organisations and groups to which we are already connected. Reach out to your child’s school to ask about setting up a School Street, or work with your local church, faith group, community organisation or sports club to encourage and enable people to walk, cycle or take public transport to meetings or activities where possible.
3. Leadership from community and business organisations Many organisations are reluctant to take openly political positions, however, this doesn’t mean you cannot give general support to measures that would improve road safety, air quality, and enable active travel. Moreover, as a key local stakeholder you could also contribute to shape how new schemes are designed and implemented to ensure that they meet local needs. For businesses this also makes good financial sense: more walkable streets are important to the local economy, pedestrians and cyclists spend 40% more in local shops than those travelling by car, and unsafe levels of air pollution are beginning to have a negative impact on property values.
4. Don’t give up! Unfortunately, these changes won’t happen overnight. Continued support is needed from residents to encourage councillors to support safer streets, and hold them to account if they don’t deliver on their commitments.
Tree on car. Photo taken on Bromley Road on 18 February 2022.
As Storm Eunice rages around us, here are some events happening this week which can help you consider how active travel (and related environmental and climate issues) could and should be an area of focus in the local elections on 5 May:
Climate Emergency UK are running two sessions explaining how to use the Council Climate Plan Scorecards they launched at the end of January. One session is on Tuesday 22 February 12-1pm, the other is Thursday 24 February 6-7pm (register here).
Playing Out are running a webinar on the impact of play streets on active travel, with Chris Boardman as a special guest, on Wednesday 23 February at 2pm (register here). This topic is particularly timely in London Borough of Bromley, as the Portfolio Holder for the Environment (Cllr Huntington-Thresher) recently replied to a question from a resident with the statement that Bromley Council “does not support the concept of Play Streets as such” (response to question 3, here).
If you’re thinking “I’m busy next week but I wonder if there’s anything interesting happening the week after that?” then you might want to consider attending the Council meeting on Monday 28 February (details here), where agenda item 4 includes three petitions relevant to active travel, on (1) Orpington Town Centre, (2) Road Safety at Chislehurst War Memorial Junction, and (3) Climate Emergency.
Finally…if attending virtual meetings doesn’t do it for you, you might want to check out https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/localgroupresources for useful templates, guides, ideas and resources for campaigning.
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
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
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.
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
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.
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
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
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.
This report by Bromley Living Streets presents key data on air pollution and safety around Bromley schools, and presents ideas for how Bromley residents can take action to improve their neighbourhood between now and the May 2022 local elections.
Bromley Council is under Conservative control, with Conservative councillors in 50 of the 60 seats in Full Council. This report takes as its starting point the recent claim made by Bromley Conservatives that “no schools are exposed to unsafe levels of air pollution” in the London Borough of Bromley (see below).
First, we make the case that the use of the word “unsafe” is factually incorrect in this context. We draw on the same modelled data used by Bromley Conservatives, as well as commitments made by Bromley Council in its Air Quality Action Plan. We also present air quality data we have collected ourselves in June and July 2021, using the Flow2 portable air monitor produced by Plume Labs.
Second, we present data collected through our School Travel Survey, indicating high demand for action to improve roads around Bromley’s schools. 5,500 Bromley parents responded to our School Travel Survey last autumn, and the overwhelming message was that parents would love their children to walk or cycle to school, but at present they do not feel local roads are safe enough.
Third, we make the case that it is entirely possible to imagine better streets for Bromley borough, particularly around schools.We present a visualisation showing what some of our roads could look like if they were redesigned to serve the needs of people travelling on foot or by bicycle as well as people travelling by car or bus. In a future report, we will present information about Bromley’s existing 6 school streets, and the amount of money Bromley Council might have available to spend on improvements to roads once Bromley starts enforcing traffic offences (Bromley is the last borough in London to do this).
Local government elections in May 2022 represent a key opportunity for Bromley residents to push for improvements to their neighbourhoods, as all borough councillor seats are up for election. With this in mind, our report also suggests some actions local residents can take now in order to ensure that better streets for Bromley are firmly on the agenda for the May 2022 elections.
Bromley Living Streets is a group of residents in the London Borough of Bromley, campaigning for safer, quieter streets suitable for all people and all modes of travel, particularly walking, cycling and public transport. We have been doing this since August 2018 as volunteers, because we believe it is the right thing to do for the people of Bromley and for the planet. Bromley Living Streets is a local group of Living Streets, the national charity for everyday walking. You can contact us here. We would love to hear from you, particularly in the coming months as we start to talk to political parties about what they intend to commit to if they are successful in the May 2022 elections.
What do you think?
Do you have ideas about the street where you live, a street you frequently travel on, or a street where children go to school?
You might want to consider presenting data and evidence to your councillors, and Bromley Living Streets is willing and able to provide support to you with this. You could monitor air pollution outside your local school or create visualisations of what ‘problem roads’ near you could look like, as we have done here. You could start a local community conversation about this, and 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 their councillors what action they are taking and why they aren’t creating more school streets.
Let us know, and let your councillors know – otherwise they will approach the elections next May with the idea that all their constituents want things to stay as they are. This is a problem because in fact things will not stay as they are, they will get significantly worse: 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. 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.
How safe is the air Bromley children are breathing on their way to school?
In early June 2021, as the dust settled on the London Mayoral elections, Bromley Conservatives launched their election campaign for May 2022 local elections with a leaflet that claimed that “no schools are exposed to unsafe levels of air pollution.” Over Twitter, Cllr Harmer has clarified that this claim was based on modelled data from the Mayor’s Office and EU standards.
There are a couple of problems with the claim made by Bromley Conservatives. First, it is factually incorrect – because there is no ‘safe’ level of most air pollutants. This is according to the World Health Organisation (WHO):
This quote comes from page 188 of this report. The obvious response to this point is contained within the twitter exchange and WHO quote, above: societies choose a level of risk that is acceptable to them, and enshrine this in law – i.e. what Bromley Conservatives meant to say is that no schools are exposed to illegal levels of air pollution. However…the Bromley Air Quality Action Plan explicitly makes this point about there being no safe level for many air pollutants and states the council commits to target compliance with WHO guidelines in future.
So how do Bromley schools measure up against WHO guidelines?
We have collected data that shows a different story, as every school we visited with an air quality monitor during June and July exceeded WHO guidelines, and even the modelled air quality data used by Bromley Conservatives shows air pollution outside many Bromley schools exceeds WHO guidelines (see the end of this report for more on this). We would love to discuss these findings further with Bromley councillors.
To test the modelled data used by Bromley Conservatives in their leaflet, we collected air quality data around several Bromley schools during the morning peak period. The air quality monitor we used, the portable Flow2 monitor produced by Plume Labs, is estimated to be within 10% of accuracy. The data gives good reason for concern about air pollution outside some Bromley schools. We provide one case study below, and will share data from other schools in the coming weeks.
Valley School
This image shows air quality on the school run for one of us, at Valley School in Shortlands village, in Bromley Town ward. The two purple peaks on the left of the chart are 8.30am and 9am. Both peaks are at the end of Farnaby road. In between, we walked to the school gate, did the school drop-off, then went to the shops in Shortlands village, then went home. The pollution level subsides in the school playground.
The purple colour of the peaks on the chart indicate air pollution is ‘Very high’ according to the Plume Air Quality Index used in the Flow2 monitor. You can read more about the Plume Index here, but the key point is that the categories in the Index (Low, Moderate, High, Very High, Excessive) are linked to the exposure limits outlined by the World Health Organisation, with each category representing the amount of time it is safe to spend in that level of pollution.
The meaning of ‘Very high’ is that effects will immediately be felt by individuals at risk, and everybody feels the effects of prolonged exposure.
Data on how Bromley children travel to schools, and how they would travel to schools if they felt roads were safe
“I wish it was safe for my children to cycle to school. I hate adding to the pollution.”
Parent response to the Bromley Living Streets 2020 School Travel Survey
Air pollution can be reduced significantly with changes to street design and transport infrastructure such as school streets. The cause of the air pollution outside Bromley schools is motor vehicles. Many of these are on the school run. Could we get parents and carers to consider alternatives to driving their children to school? We believe that in many cases the answer is yes. Our September 2020 School Travel Survey strongly supports this, with 5,500 responses with Bromley parents indicating, that they would encourage their children to walk, cycle or scoot to school if they felt it was safe to do so. It is not a question of parents being unwilling to take more sustainable modes, but a lack of adequate street infrastructures to allow children and parents to walk and cycle safely. How could we make this possible?
How the school run could look if we improved the public realm for all road users
Here is a visualisation showing what some of our roads could look like if they were redesigned to serve the needs of people travelling on foot or by bicycle as well as people travelling by car or bus.
Some things to note:
This street is safer and more pleasant for people travelling on foot or by bicycle.
This street is also better for people travelling by car or bus because there will be fewer motorised vehicles and so less likelihood of traffic.
Not all roads are suitable for modifications of this kind. Some may be suitable for other kinds of modifications/measures aimed at traffic calming, such as school streets, or a wide range of options such as those detailed in this document: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/achieving-lower-speeds-toolkit.pdf
Redesigning our roads to serve the needs of all road users is not impossible, a pipe dream, or pie in the sky. ‘Modal shift’ – supporting people to use cars less and walk or cycle more – has been successfully achieved in many European cities and some UK areas (such as Waltham Forest).
Below are images of modelled air pollution taken from the London Air website for selected Bromley schools, all of which show air pollution levels higher than World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines. We hope parents at these schools will use these images to ask their councillors what they are doing about this issue.
In each of these images, air pollution levels are above the WHO limit for PM2.5 (10µg m-3) – probably somewhere between 12 and 14. At present, the EU limit for PM2.5 is 25 – but the EU plans to tighten air pollution limits next year, to better align them with upcoming World Health Organisation recommendations.
Here’s how you can produce your own images of data for your street or area: Go to the map on the London Air website and insert a postcode. There’s a drop down below the map to select different pollutants. Then take a screenshot. That’s all you need to do.
Valley School, Beckenham Lane
Bickley Primary, St Georges CofE and La Fontaine
Langley Park School for Boys, Langley Park School for Girls and Langley Park Primary, Eden Park Road
