Redbridge Council have proposed a series of School Streets schemes which aim to improve air quality around schools. The object is to close key roads close to schools like Church Path and Fitzgerald Road next to Wanstead Church or those close to Nightingale Primary.

The aim is a noble one and who wouldn’t want better air quality whether its by schools or anywhere else?

However, my concern is how these schemes will be enforced and how they will operate in reality. In Ilford the council wasted £150,000 of tax-payer money on School Streets schemes that simply didn’t work and had to be removed. They need to learn from these mistakes and ensure better planning.

These schemes in Wanstead don’t aim to ban all traffic, just non-residential vehicles. So how will they operate? The council claims a Traffic Management Order (TMO) will be in place to enforce it. So those who break it will be issued with parking fines and money will have to be spent on yet more road signage.

We should focus on promoting walking and cycling to school, better public transport and improving the condition of our pavements rather than signs, lines parking fines which ban parents and carers from driving to the school gate.

Scott Wilding

Addison Road, Wanstead