Lewisham celebrates 45 traffic free streets outside schools
New School Streets went live yesterday (24 February) outside Stillness Infants and Stillness Juniors, Beecroft Garden, Childeric, Elfrida and Grinling Gibbons primary schools - helping to protect young lungs from harmful emissions and improve road safety by closing the roads outside school gates to traffic at the start and end of the school day.
The Mayor of Lewisham, Damien Egan, joined the headteachers and pupils at Stillness Primary School in Crofton Park yesterday morning to celebrate the schools’ two new School Streets, with Cllr Patrick Codd, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport; Cllr Chris Barnham, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services and School Performance; Vicky Foxcroft MP and Cllr Tauseef Anwar, Councillor for Crofton Park.
The new School Streets will go hand-in-hand with various initiatives across the borough to help create a greener future for Lewisham, including planting 24,000 trees, making Council buildings, adult learning centres and some schools more energy efficient and launching a Greening Fund to support local community groups who are protecting and enhancing Lewisham’s green spaces.
These measures are part of the Council’s work to deliver on the commitments set out in its Climate Emergency Action Plan, which was recently recognised as one of the best performing Climate Plans in the country by Climate Emergency UK.
Damien Egan, Mayor of Lewisham, said:
“We’re delighted to be rolling out even more School Streets in Lewisham, which will help improve air quality around schools.
"There has been a lot of positive feedback from parents, teachers and the children at Stillness Primary School and I’m looking forward to rolling out more school streets over the coming months.”
Cllr Patrick Codd, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, said:
“We’re incredibly proud of our School Streets programme, which is helping ensure that children can enjoy a more relaxing and healthier school run free from toxic pollution and road traffic.
“Motor vehicle pollution makes up one of the largest shares of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, and it’s clear that in order to successfully tackle the climate emergency we must reduce the use of cars.
“I’d like to give a huge thanks to teachers, who are working hard to support the schemes at the start and end of every school day. We’ll continue working with local schools to identify other opportunities for School Streets, as part of our work to create a healthier, cleaner and greener borough for everyone.”