FAQs

A School Street is a road outside a school with a timed restriction on motorised traffic at school drop-off and pick-up times. The restriction applies to school traffic and through traffic. The outcome is a safer, healthier, and more pleasant environment that nurtures a reduction in car trips and increased levels of walking, wheeling, and cycling.

School Street schemes offer a proactive solution for school communities to tackle air pollution, poor health, and road danger reduction. A School Street scheme will encourage a healthier lifestyle and active travel to school for families and lead to a better environment for everyone.

School Streets are being developed to help promote Active Travel, Health and Wellbeing at the school gate, by creating a car free or low traffic zone that can help reduce pollution, improve road safety, promote walking and cycling and improve visibility of the school within its community.

Whilst not all schools may be able to have a car free school street, the trial aims to work with all schools to identify their understanding of School Streets and promote actions that encourage Active Travel, Health and Wellbeing and work with schools to access initiatives and education to support pupils, staff and parents.

Examples of School Street schemes have shown that encouraging support from the school and community is key to success. Cohorts of well-informed parents and residents will be the best advocate to inform future decision making.

School Streets can be a singular or combination of initiatives and infrastructure that may include highway signage and lining, parking or access restrictions, barriers (permanent or temporary) and other highway improvements.

All schools participating in the trial will be fully engaged with their School Street and a range of in-school activities undertaken during the trial. The school will be encouraged to work with their wider community to ensure a clear understanding of the School Street and how it runs is communicated.

Highway Authorities are empowered to restrict traffic on roads using Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO). An Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) may be used to introduce restrictions on a trial basis, allowing the effectiveness of a scheme and its effect on surrounding roads to be monitored before, that will help to inform a decision on whether to make restrictions permanent.

Unlike a normal TRO, no public consultation is required before putting an ETRO in place. Instead, the restrictions, and comments from the public are monitored for a period of 6 months. After this, a decision is taken on whether to make the restrictions permanent, whether to modify them before making them permanent or whether to remove them. This decision must be made and enacted within 18 months of the trial starting, after which the ETRO automatically lapses.

Accessibility to alternative parking, either on road or as a park and stride is an aspect which is investigated as part of the preparatory work and is included when scoring each school. School pupil plots will help inform us of current distance travelled by families to and from school. This information will support in-school mapping activities to highlight alternative parking if parents are unable to leave the car at home.

The impact of the School Street should not negatively impact surrounding roads or communities. Monitoring will be in place before and during the trial to ensure the situation is managed.

Where possible pre-identified park and stride locations will be promoted as the best place to park.

The road network is an aspect which is investigated as part of the preparatory work, however, by working with the community accessibility to those who need it will be retained.

There will be no impact on existing bus routes as part of the School Streets trial, however a bus route on a School Street is investigated as part of the preparatory work, which is considered when scoring each school.

All problems should be reported to the named point of contact for the school or through the School Streets engagement page.

Email: SchoolStreets@westsussex.gov.uk 

Local parking enforcement teams will also help monitor the effect of the School Street trial on local parking.

Through the introduction of a School Street, the total volumes of traffic near to the school are expected to decrease during drop-off and pick-up times.

It is difficult to predict exactly how much traffic will be reduced and this will vary for different School Streets, however, in other areas monitoring data for School Streets shows that the reduction of vehicles recorded within most School Streets was greater than the increase in displaced traffic in adjacent roads where these were monitored.

There is potential for parking to be dispersed over a wider area rather than concentrated outside the school gates.  We will be working with the school and local community to identify locations away from schools where parents can park safely without obstructing residents on neighbouring streets.

For the trial, schools were chosen by reviewing existing engagement with the Active Travel team and where there has been existing contact with a cluster of schools.  

If the scheme is extended then future scheme will be based on level of interest and engagement, alongside our preparatory work, where we investigate various elements to determine its impact.

Each school will have a named point of contact, backed by a School Streets working group comprising School Senior Leadership Team, Parent, Pupil and Governor/Trustee representatives, and where possible a resident representative.

The point of contact will be supported by the County Council who will provide advice and gathering data.

All problems should be reported to the named point of contact for the school and through the School Streets engagement page. 

Email: SchoolStreets@westsussex.gov.uk 

School Streets are being implemented on a trial basis using an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO). The purpose of an ETRO is to allow restrictions to be trialled before a decision is made on whether permanent restrictions should be considered.  No public consultation is required before an ETRO is made, but the scheme must be monitored throughout the trial period, and all comments received from the public must be reviewed and considered before any decision is taken on whether to introduce permanent restrictions.

School Street signs will be installed at the entry points of the restricted roads and advanced warning signs will be installed on some surrounding roads, informing people of the timed closure outside the school.

We also produce banners, flyers, information on our website and letters to notify residents, parents, school staff, and local businesses in areas affected by the trial.

We ask the school and anyone within the School Street community to tell their visitors about the restrictions when visits are being planned. Visitors can park on surrounding roads outside the closure. 

We will undertake a range of measures to monitor and assess the School Street, which includes:

• Sensors or Traffic Counts to measure vehicle levels before and after implementation
• Surveys to measure how children are travelling to and from school before and after implementation
• Consultation feedback
• On-site monitoring
• Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) data / Police

All of this information will be reported to a WSCC Members Task and Finish Group for Active Travel to decide whether the School Streets are made permanent or removed.

Local authorities can implement Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) or Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders (ETROs) to control traffic in their area. These are legal powers and can be temporary or permanent. Local residents must be informed about proposals. Active Travel England is currently working on guidance to support Local Authorities. If needed any trial sites will be amended as necessary.

Failure to comply with the signage may result in a Moving Motor Vehicle Offence that is enforceable by the Police.

No. Blue badge holders are permitted access during the operational times. Existing restrictions still apply.

School Streets only operate for a very limited window during the day, generally less than 2 hours in a 24-hour day. 

Whilst School Streets may interfere with a small number of deliveries, the short operating times mean the schemes provide adequate opportunity to reschedule these deliveries. Also, by keeping the physical School Street zones as small as possible, it means that delivery drivers arriving during the closure periods would only have a short distance to walk if they parked on the periphery of the scheme.

School Streets operational times coincide with school opening and closing times. In most circumstances, teachers and other school staff will have already arrived before the restrictions come into effect and therefore, will not be affected by the scheme regardless of if they drive to work or not.

Vehicles parked within the zone will be able to leave with care during the restriction, however, new parking will not be permitted within the restriction except by authorised vehicles.

Accessibility to alternative parking, either on road or as a park and stride is an aspect which is investigated as part of the preparatory work and is included when scoring each school. School pupil plots will help inform us of current distance travelled by families to and from school. This information will support in-school mapping activities to highlight alternative parking if parents are unable to leave the car at home.

The impact of the School Street should not negatively impact surrounding roads or communities. Monitoring will be in place before and during the trial to ensure the situation is managed.

Where possible pre-identified park and stride locations will be promoted as the best place to park.

If you are a resident who lives within the School Street restriction, you have right of access at any time during the trial, however we would recommend avoiding peak school times if possible to discourage abuse of the access by unauthorised vehicles.