School Streets

During a School Street the road is opened up to people walking, cycling and scooting by restricting access to non-essential motor vehicles.  The School Street takes place at the beginning and the end of the school day and helps children, parents, carers and school staff to enjoy safer, healthier routes to school. Residents who live in the area will also benefit from safer, quieter roads and cleaner air.

The School Street is managed by trained stewards using moveable barriers. The stewards can be easily identified by branded, high-vis vests. The restrictions are managed through an Temporary Traffic Regulation Order (TTRO) and will last for up to an hour at the beginning and end of the school day. In practice, many schools find they do not need to use the full hour they have been allocated and the restrictions are normally in place for approximately 40 minutes.

• To create a safer and more pleasant environment for families arriving at school, while also tackling congestion and reducing risk from motorised vehicles
• To create safer, quieter roads for residents
• To encourage children, parents, carers and school staff to walk, cycle and scoot to and from school.
• To promote healthier and more active lifestyles, teaching children positive travel habits from a young age
• To improve air quality in the immediate area outside of the school
• To encourage a long-lasting mode shift away from the car

Access will be restricted to all but essential or pre-arranged vehicles between set times around drop-off and pick-up on weekdays during school term time. A School Street does not operate during school holidays, inset days or at weekends.

Vehicles already parked in the street before the School Street restrictions start will be able to leave when they need to. Stewards will let residents out of the School Street zone, but we ask drivers to travel at a walking pace to ensure children’s safety.

To help make this a success, it would be really helpful if you could consider booking deliveries or moving your vehicle outside of the School Street hours to reduce vehicle movement as much as possible.

During a School Street, access is always available for residents and business premises on the street, emergency services, school transport, blue badge holders, taxis, Home to School Transport vehicles, carers of residents who live in the street and people with specific requirements that have been pre-agreed with the head teacher.

Participating schools will operate a trial School Street to begin with and exemptions will be reviewed during the trial.

Yes. Blue badge holders would be able to enter the School Street zone but we ask drivers to travel at a walking pace to ensure children’s safety.

No. Parents or carers dropping children at school are not able to drive into a School Street zone unless they can show that they are exempt. You will still be able to walk, cycle or scoot to school in a more friendly and safer environment.

You will be able to pick up a map from the school which shows where you can park while the School Street is operating.

We encourage all residents, businesses and even the participating schools to ensure they don’t arrange deliveries during the closure times. If, however, you simply cannot rearrange a delivery time, the driver will be guided through the School Street at walking pace behind a steward. This is the same for all vehicles.

If possible, we would encourage you to alter any pre-existing weekly shopping deliveries to fall either side of the closure times.

School Streets are implemented on a trial basis, using Experimental or Temporary Traffic Orders. The trial period will be for seven weeks. If the trial is successful, based on the results of monitoring and feedback from the school community and local residents, the closure could be made permanent.

Under a Temporary Traffic Regulation Order (TTRO), utility companies will have access to the street/s for any emergency work that’s needed.

The following schools have previously taken part part in School Streets:

• St Jude’s Church of England Primary School
• Bramble Infant and Nursery School
• St John’s Cathedral Catholic Primary School
• Meon Infant School and Meon Junior School
• Kings Academy College Park

We are working with St Jude’s CoE and Bramble Infant and Nursery School Streets to make  their School Streets permanent. Find out more of the schools’ websites.

St Jude’s

Bramble 

If you are interested in finding out more about School Streets or would like to enquire about a School Street for your school please email schoolstreets@portsmouthcc.gov.uk. Please allow five working days for a response.