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cycle-path-3881171_1920Residents say they are 'prisoners in their own homes' after School Street scheme introduced
Residents living near a school have claimed they are 'prisoners in their own home' after a new traffic safety scheme was put in place.
Households in Durham Close, Cheltenham, said that since the School Streets scheme, that is currently being trialled at Warden Hill Primary School, has been introduced they feel like they are unable to leave their homes when they like, despite being provided with permits by the council to come and go as they please.
They also claim that parents and children are 'being unnecessarily encouraged to spread out across the road to walk to the school in the cul-de-sac'.
Gloucestershire County Council is currently trialling an 18-month initiative with three schools in the county which aims to improve road safety and air quality, reduce traffic congestion, encourage active travel and healthy lifestyles.
One resident, Deborah Hughes, 56, spoke to Gloucestershire Live and expressed her anger at the scheme.
She said: "I've been here 24, 25 years, but some residents have been here 54 years and they're being told how they can live.
"In the name of the School Streets Scheme we're being told that for two hours every day we are not allowed to receive visitors, family, friends, tradesman or deliveries.
"This is after a year of restrictions because of Covid, and now further restrictions are being forced upon us, why are we being bullied?"
"They [Gloucestershire County Council / Gloucestershire Highways] arrived and put up signs and started painting lines and residents weren't told at all, there was no consultation.
"We always try and avoid kick out time, but deliveries are being blocked and businesses are being run here, you can't make people hold their life for two hours a day every day - it's like we're prisoners in our own homes."
Another family said that the scheme was restricting the care required for the household, they said: "In the 42 years we have lived here, there have been many occasions when we have had to call on district nurses to help with my husband's care.
"With the changes in the way nurses are now organised it would be a different nurse nearly every time.
"They would be unable to guarantee that they could come outside the restricted hours and would begrudge the time wasted in explaining who and why they are visiting, let alone the breach of privacy this raises."
Another said: "I have no way to arrange a date or time for the delivery of my medication, they are sent out using 48hour delivery, and usually arrive in the morning often between 8am and 9 am, what am I supposed to do if some jobsworth turns my medical delivery away if it arrives during the restricted hours?"
Gloucestershire County Council has said it is trialling an 18-month initiative with three schools in the county, starting from November 2, 2020.
The Gloucestershire County Council website states that they will "work with schools to collect data on how pupils and staff travel to school", it also says that they will monitor traffic and air quality.
Mrs Hughes added: "We want a one way system on the path, but the school is making them mill all over the school and there are children are all over the road with their scooters.
"The children don't remember what time that is so it's happening all the time.
"My husband is a shift worker and he says it's an accident waiting to happen. They can come and go when they want but we can't.
"It's not the School Streets Scheme we have a problem with.
"It's how it's being implemented. School streets is never intended to affect the residents this way or block them from moving freely.
"Traffic needs to flow to and from the residents should be unaffected. They've put signs up that effectively stop people coming up the road."
A spokesman for Gloucestershire County Council said: “Durham Close, by Warden Hill Primary School, is closed to most traffic during school drop-off and pick-up times and is open to people on foot, bike or scooter.
"The school street scheme trial aims to improve road safety and air quality, reduce traffic congestion, encourage active travel and healthy lifestyles; as well as creating more space outside the school so people can keep to social distancing guidelines to help prevent the spread of Covid-19.
"All residents have been issued with permits allowing them and visitors including delivery vehicles, tradespeople and carers access to Durham Close during the road closure times. As this is a trial scheme we are always interested in feedback from residents, the school and pupils."
Warden Hill Primary School declined to comment.
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43 comments
My local school addressed the problem with a big banner saying "Show that you care - park elsewhere" which rhymes nicely but seems to miss the point a little bit...
They should try "Don't be a fool, walk the kids to school!"*
*Unless you live more than 300m away, in which case fire up the Landy!
That's a good slogan! Perhaps I should suggest that!
This particular school is in a fairly dense residential area with a catchment of a few hundred metres and no major roads within the catchment area, so why there is always so much parking and driving is a big mystery to me.
Far too dangerous to walk cos of all the cars.....
You mean, this
It works very well around my kid's old school. Some drivers even stick to the 20mph limit outside school hours as it applies 24/7
Looks like it's been in place since at least Nov 2020 there too
Am I missing something?
The scheme means that non-residents can't enter the small area for two hours each day during school term?
And, during those periods, children might be walking on the roadway?
Not exactly Colditz, is it...?
I must admit I don't know this particular example, but if it's anything like my local primary it would be impossible for anyone to visit during those hours due to the massed ranks of cars parked on the pavement.
However this is Gloucestershire, and the ability of Gloucestershire highways department to muck up any traffic reduction scheme cannot be overestimated.
Well I dont know how you can guarantee delivery, trades people, carers etc can all turn up outside of those houses and FWIW they arent the ones causing the problem anyway.
Plus I can almost guarantee having frequently been caught up in the traffic mayhem around schools where parking next to them isnt possible, they just drive to the next nearest street and shift the problem there instead.
So nice idea in practice but not fixing the fundamental problem which is the car is still considered the default mode of transport on journeys of less than 2miles
I spent some time as a delivery driver. Delivered around central and greater London for about 2years. That was the worst route ever.....
Joking aside, I was never prevented from delivering because I couldn't park outside the door. I used to park up where I could and then use the sack barrow. Some times I used to park further away where I could find an easy space cos it was quicker than spending time looking for somewhere close
It never ceases to amaze me how concerned folk are about the distance an Ocado, or a Tesco, a DHL, DPD etc etc might have to walk. It really makes no difference to the recipient of the delivery.
And trades. same again. They will get to your door if they want the job, don't worry!
FFS.....
I wouldnt be fussed how far a delivery driver has to walk to deliver a parcel,I'd be more concerned about receiving the parcel at all and there are lots of complications for people receiving care or nursing at home in that setup because their appointments are time limited,that has a financial cost attached to it.
So i'm very uneasy with a setup that penalises people who arent the cause of the problem, the problem is driving kids to a school, not driving on a road during the school run time.
Not sure why you would think you won't get the delivery? the fault for a delivery company failing to deliver a parcel to a perfectly accessible premises lies at the, ahem, door of the delivery company.
The issue with care is not about this school street. It's our entire care funding/implementation model. Not having school streets will do nothing to alleviate this problem, it will just cause a problem for kids getting to school under their own steam.
Nobody is being penalised. A reasonable adjustment (NB not reduction, but adjustment) to the access in this area has been enacted to ensure that people (school children) going about their lawful and necessary business (to wit going to school) on the public highway can do so safely and conveniently.
The road is not owned by the residents. It is the public highway.
Because not all delivery firms are as conscientious as you were about doing a good job for the customer.
I'm just not comfortable with a scheme being implemented like this,especially
when it doesnt deal with the direct problem at all and then seems to dismiss those residents affected who raise perfectly valid concerns as some kind of anti environmental/car centric ness, those people have rights too & the school doesnt own the public highway either.
Awww cheers man!
Not just me, most drivers just get on with their jobs.
Indeed they have rights, I just don't believe that they include being able to deny the safe use of the PH to children, or dictate how the PH is legislated. Note, they are still able to use the PH too!
The school doesn't own it either, this is true (although I don't believe there has been any attempt by the school to annex the road). A significant number of kids need to use this road to get to school, and need to be able to do it safely. So for a limited time each day, 2 hours out of 24, for 60% of the weeks of the year (40% of the days of the year), 450 odd children get priority on the public highway, over this 180m of road in front of 28 residences.
There is no practical imposition in goods or services reaching the residents - access is maintained. No rights have been infringed.
There is a side road I pass on my way to work occasionaly, the side street is a dead end and contains a school. Routinely before school the entrance to the road will be blocked, and the main road will become blocked by people who cannot accept they can't turn in to drive the last 300m to drop their (secondary school aged children) right outside the gate. Traffic queues for about a mile on a road that would flow freely, but for people who insist on trying to drive into this dead end road to drop their children at school every day, despite their experience on all previous days that it is not possible.
Anyone attempting a delivery at these times would not be succesful or would be sugnificantly delayed, and the residents will also be unable to enter/leave their homes.
Ban non residents from the street and their would likely be similar complaints.
How to the delivery drivers manage, or carers park, if every available space is taken by a school run driver.
I'm not sure their concerns are that valid. The council says delivery drivers are allowed in at all time, carers are allowed in at all times, residents are allowed in at all times, visitors are allowed in at all times. So what objections do they have left?
As for not dealing with the problem...it depends on what you define as the problem. If its poor air quality in the school, and bad congestion outside the school where the kids are all concentrated then it sounds like it would - and it is a trial so presumably we will find out for sure.
Of course there are a million problems it doesn't solve...
I find it very informative that in our society the inability to use a car is synonymous with being 'prisoners in their own home'. What have we come to.
You're so right. The right to drive a car trumps all other rights, considerations and values. We live in a totally car obsessed society of brainwashed sheep.
Indeed my local news outlet ran a story where people were horrified that people parking on the grass were being ticketed. Apparently it is not the fault of drivers that the car parks near the park and play ground were full, and that more parking should be provided.
Playgrounds are not destinations they are intended for the local children, if they are not in walking distance there is probably a closer park you could be using.
Similar story about drivers 'being unable to park outside their own homes' [on the pavement]
Apparently the guidance is not clear what residents should do as parking on the pavement is likely to be banned shortly. I thought it was quite clear - no one should park on the pavement. It is not for the local authority to provide you with somewhere to store your property. Nor should local taxpayers be paying to repair the damage to the pavement from inconsiderate parking.
Yes exactly - 'my car is a prisoner in it's own driveway'!
But then again - no it isn't. The residents can come and go as they please (presumably all residents will have permits), it's just 'incomers' that are prohibited, which presumably includes parents dropping their kids off at the school? You'd think the residents would be happy that their narrow street is no longer clogged up with the school run? Or am I missing something?
Or is a case of:
Residents - 'Our street is clogged with the school run two hours every weekday, do something Council!'
Council - 'We've done something'
Residents - 'No, not that - something that doesn't inconvenience me in the slightest!'
As, apparently, can their visitors and medical deliveries.
It may take them a little longer if children are walking along the carriageway. How much time?...
At 180m long, the difference between 30mph and 5mph for the house at the far end of the cul-de-sac is around 1 minute. How short is your car journey that 1 minute is a significant journey element?
This is not about imprisonment, or even about significant delay, it's about the inappropriate sensation of speed.
That's not considering the safe speed to drive down a cul de sac is not 30 but probably more 20 or lower. Nor is it allowing for acceleration or deceleration. So I'd argue that the average speed will be more like 10 - 15 or less....
It's depressing.
When people start treating driving a car as some sort of human right then you start to worry. Unless authorities are prepared to have some guts and restrict car use in order to change behaviours it'll be in the same camp as gun control in the USA, almost impossible to change. We're at peak car in this country; too many, not enough road space and, most disturbingly, a warped sense of self entitlement once behind the wheel.
Poor things. How will they ever survive? My heart bleeds . . .
If you look it up on Google maps, the close is baout 150m long. I reckon most delivery drivers are OK with carrying a package down the length of it, but who knows. It is literally a couple of hours a day at completely predicatable times and only for part of the year.
I think you'd be surprised.
It is far easier and takes less time to tick 'couldn't deliver; no access' on their management app and let someone else try another time.
That might be the case (although most drivers want to get the job done and go home and can't be arsed messing about like that), however, I don't think that should be a consideration when planning a school street. There is sufficient access for deliveries. Incompetence/laziness of a tiny minority of employed drivers is a management issue for DHL etc, not a valid objection for an arrangement that will make it safer and more convenient for kids to access their school
I don't disagree, Cap'n B.
I was just pointing out that most delivery drivers are paid a complete pittance and need to get their deliveries - er - delivered as quickly as possible. I'd imagine that walking 150 metres down the road would throw a spanner in that particular works...
True, and the rate folk are paid, job and knock, unreasonable loads are all massive issues that have some pretty dire knock-on consequences for members of the public ( not to mention teh employees themselves). There's all kinds of things that throw a spanner in the works on a route - not least of which is the school run.....
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