School Street zone consultation

4justice2

I had a letter from my local council this morning (I'm in the West Midlands). They're proposing to change my road and two nearby roads into "School Streets" zone, a one year experiment looking to make permanent in future.
The scheme means that for two hours each school day the road will be pedestrian only.  There will be an exemption for residents cars, anyone else who enters can be fined.
It seems like a good idea if it stops the school run parking issues, though I realise it may just push the problem to streets just outside the zone.
Has anyone else had this sort of scheme in their street, was it good or bad? How do they cope with deliveries or tradesmen?

martindow

Are you concerned as to whether it will put off potential buyers if you wish to sell?

Living near a school can be horrible morning and afternoon with inconsiderate parents parking all over the place and blocking driveways.  I think that a school street would be an advantage from a sales point of view and make your street pleasanter..

To some extent it will push the problem onto neighbouring streets, but it may encourage a proportion of parents to walk or cycle as they won't be able to park immediately outside the school to drop off or pick up.

user1977

4justice2 said:

How do they cope with deliveries or tradesmen?

Deliveries and trades can cope with things like all-day residents parking restrictions or rush-hour prohibitions against loading, so I expect they'll find a way of managing.

4justice2

martindow said:

Are you concerned as to whether it will put off potential buyers if you wish to sell?

Living near a school can be horrible morning and afternoon with inconsiderate parents parking all over the place and blocking driveways.  I think that a school street would be an advantage from a sales point of view and make your street pleasanter..

To some extent it will push the problem onto neighbouring streets, but it may encourage a proportion of parents to walk or cycle as they won't be able to park immediately outside the school to drop off or pick up.

I think it will improve the value. I live in a dead-end street, lot of houses, mix of Victorian terraces without offstreet parking, and newer houses with drives. So we don't get any through traffic, only residents, school traffic and any deliveries. Which means aside from school run the street's pretty quiet. 
It can be a problem at school run times: inconsiderate parking; three point turns across pavements, etc. 
Just wondered if anybody had any practical experience of these schemes, good or bad?  What do supermarket and Amazon deliveries and tradesmen do? How do they avoid being fined?

housebuyer143

4justice2 said:

I had a letter from my local council this morning (I'm in the West Midlands). They're proposing to change my road and two nearby roads into "School Streets" zone, a one year experiment looking to make permanent in future.
The scheme means that for two hours each school day the road will be pedestrian only.  There will be an exemption for residents cars, anyone else who enters can be fined.
It seems like a good idea if it stops the school run parking issues, though I realise it may just push the problem to streets just outside the zone.
Has anyone else had this sort of scheme in their street, was it good or bad? How do they cope with deliveries or tradesmen?

We had this in our old area and it was fine while it was policed and then once the wardens disappeared so the cars reappeared 🤷‍♂️

4justice2

housebuyer143 said:

4justice2 said:

I had a letter from my local council this morning (I'm in the West Midlands). They're proposing to change my road and two nearby roads into "School Streets" zone, a one year experiment looking to make permanent in future.
The scheme means that for two hours each school day the road will be pedestrian only.  There will be an exemption for residents cars, anyone else who enters can be fined.
It seems like a good idea if it stops the school run parking issues, though I realise it may just push the problem to streets just outside the zone.
Has anyone else had this sort of scheme in their street, was it good or bad? How do they cope with deliveries or tradesmen?

We had this in our old area and it was fine while it was policed and then once the wardens disappeared so the cars reappeared 🤷‍♂️

Not clear yet how it's going to be enforced.  Nothing in the letter other than "could be fined".  I was assuming ANPR camera as I can't imagine the council sending out a warden for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon!

Brie

4justice2 said:

housebuyer143 said:

4justice2 said:

I had a letter from my local council this morning (I'm in the West Midlands). They're proposing to change my road and two nearby roads into "School Streets" zone, a one year experiment looking to make permanent in future.
The scheme means that for two hours each school day the road will be pedestrian only.  There will be an exemption for residents cars, anyone else who enters can be fined.
It seems like a good idea if it stops the school run parking issues, though I realise it may just push the problem to streets just outside the zone.
Has anyone else had this sort of scheme in their street, was it good or bad? How do they cope with deliveries or tradesmen?

We had this in our old area and it was fine while it was policed and then once the wardens disappeared so the cars reappeared 🤷‍♂️

Not clear yet how it's going to be enforced.  Nothing in the letter other than "could be fined".  I was assuming ANPR camera as I can't imagine the council sending out a warden for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon!

I didn't think council were allowed to use ANPR cameras. 

And besides how would one distinguish between your and some other random car?  What if you need a rental or have MiL staying to look after the kids?  

4justice2

I understand they're not allowed to use ANPR for car parks, but they do use them for other purposes. Birmingham Council use them to enforce the Clean Air Zone. There's only limited info from the council so far, but residents with addresses in the zone will be "eligible to apply for an exemption". No idea how many cars you can register yet......

DiamondLil

I live in a CPZ outer London area; residents can apply for visitor permits and /or residential permits. Delivery vans have no problem with delivering any time of day or night. Trades can use the visitor permits if necessary. It works well and is a huge benefit to us as we live opposite a rail station serving commuter routes into central London.

bellaboo86

I honestly wouldn’t worry about it. My school signed upto it last year in my area and it requires a lot of man power from the school. We needed 2 members of staff to go and stand in the road and check permits etc. This year we are still part of the scheme but there are no staff outside so it’s not really effective. A different school had a traffic warden turn up once and ticket people but that’s it so I wouldn’t worry about fines. 

[Deleted User]

What about when you have visitors? How much will a pass cost?