Agenda item

This Report informs the Committee of a petition from parents at Wykeham Primary School,   located on Aboyne Road, London, NW10 0EX, to improve road safety outside the school. It provides information detailing the road safety concerns identified by petitioners and identifies measures that will be taken to improve road safety near the school.

RESOLVED that:

(i)         The contents of the petition from concerned parents and the issues that are raised regarding road safety improvements near Wykeham Primary School be noted;

(ii)        The outcome of officer’s investigations be noted;

(iii)       The Council’s Head of Highways and Infrastructure be instructed to implement the actions identified within this report;

(iv)       The Council’s Head of Highways and Infrastructure be instructed to undertake any necessary statutory and non-statutory consultation for engineering improvement measures, and implement the scheme where there are no objections or representations or he considers these to be groundless; and

(v)        The School be strongly encouraged by the Committee to update their travel plan, working with the Council’s Safety and Travel Planning team where necessary, to reflect the proposed changes in the report and ensure that Local Implementation Plan (LIP) funding can be accessed to implement these.

(vi)       The Council’s Head of Highways and Infrastructure be instructed to review the existing arrangements for footway parking in Annesley Close, Aboyne Road and Ardley Close, particularly during school drop off / collections times with a view to improving pedestrian accessibility and safety.

Tony Kennedy introduced the report which informed the Committee of a petition from parents at Wykeham Primary School and which requested that the Council improve road safety around the school. The deadline for signatures in support of the petition closed in December 2016 and was ultimately signed by 160 people, validated by the Council’s Governance Team. The report outlined the signatories’ specific concerns about the safety of the children at the school including the risk of children being knocked down by cars on the pavement or whilst they crossed the road and also the damage being caused to the pavements by cars parking on them. Mr Kennedy highlighted that the report included that there had been two accidents within the last three years (paragraph 3.12) around the school, but neither of these were school related or had involved children at the school. The Committee heard that the Council had met with the lead petitioner to discuss concerns and had identified improvements in this area which included: enforcing ‘school – keep clear’ markings using CCTV equipped vehicles; additional guard railing to ensure pedestrians or children could only cross at crossing points; plus new bollards and trees on Annesley Close and Ardley Close to address the issue of cars parking on the pavements. Mr Kennedy concluded that the petitioners had appeared to be satisfied with the outcome after meeting with Council Officers.

Members noted the importance of the School’s Bronze Accredited Travel Plan and what could be done to encourage further improvement and whether this could be linked to encouraging different methods of getting to school. Tony Kennedy stated that the Council encouraged all schools in the borough to create and implement a travel plan. He noted that the Council provided assistance to schools on creating these and actively wanted schools to work with them to improve their plans to achieve a higher accreditation. He explained to the Committee that the accreditation was provided by TfL and was valid over a two-year period.

Questions also arose on the issue of parking and the problem it was causing in “making families squeeze against the fences”, Members questioned how this could be specifically addressed. Tony Kennedy stated that the Council could potentially further assess the parking on the affected roads and consider proposals such as having parking only being allowed on one side of the road or having footway parking only after 6pm but he highlighted that this would need a necessary consultation period with residents.      

RESOLVED that:

(i)         The contents of the petition from concerned parents and the issues that are raised regarding road safety improvements near Wykeham Primary School be noted;

(ii)        The outcome of officer’s investigations be noted;

(iii)       The Council’s Head of Highways and Infrastructure be instructed to implement the actions identified within this report;

(iv)       The Council’s Head of Highways and Infrastructure be instructed to undertake any necessary statutory and non-statutory consultation for engineering improvement measures, and implement the scheme where there are no objections or representations or he considers these to be groundless; and

(v)        The School be strongly encouraged by the Committee to update their travel plan, working with the Council’s Safety and Travel Planning team where necessary, to reflect the proposed changes in the report and ensure that Local Implementation Plan (LIP) funding can be accessed to implement these.

(vi)       The Council’s Head of Highways and Infrastructure be instructed to review the existing arrangements for footway parking in Annesley Close, Aboyne Road and Ardley Close, particularly during school drop off / collections times with a view to improving pedestrian accessibility and safety.