Do you have one or more children at school? If the answer is yes, ask your child/ren’s teachers to register their school now for Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel, the UK’s biggest inter-school walking, wheeling, scooting and cycling to school competition.
Continue reading “16 Bromley schools are doing the Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel 2023! Is yours?”Air monitoring at schools
As a follow‐up to our 2021 report on air pollution around Bromley schools, Bromley Living Streets managed to get 12 air pollution monitors for schools, as part of a project funded by the charity Asthma and Lung UK (https://www.asthma.org.uk/).
Continue reading “Air monitoring at 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:
- 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:
Bromley Living Streets’ briefing on school streets
Questions that can be submitted by residents to the call in meeting
- 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?
- 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?
Public questions – Bromley Council Environment Committee, 19 January 2022
Questions from the Public for Written Response:
1) What proportion of the schools in Bromley have walk to school schemes or cycle schemes, for example road cycle lessons in local secondary schools? How are these being implemented to encourage less car use?
Continue reading “Public questions – Bromley Council Environment Committee, 19 January 2022”School’s out
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?
Continue reading “School’s out”Air pollution and safety around Bromley schools
Ruben de Rijcke, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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.
Continue reading “Air pollution and safety around Bromley schools”