Group wants to see School Street scheme implemented in Hexham

Representatives from Active Travel Tynedale asked Hexham Town Council members at a meeting on Monday (October 10) for their support in trying to implement 'school streets' by Queen Elizabeth High School and Hexham Middle School on Whetstone Bridge Road and other nearby roads.

The School Streets initiative operates in various locations across the UK, and sees roads outside schools close to motor traffic for a set period.

The aim is to reduce the risk to school-children travelling to and from school by cutting down on traffic immediately outside the school.

Pupils at Queen Elizabeth High School and Hexham Middle School moved into new buildings on the existing high school's site in September last year.

Active Travel Tynedale member Dr Gill Turner, a consultant paeditrician at Hexham General Hospital, said the "volume of children on the roads around that site really makes it very dangerous".

She added she is concerned that it's "only by luck that we have not had a very serious accident or even a fatality".

"I think we have got this pressing problem and as of yet we don't have a solution," she said.

Fellow member Wendy Breach said the headteacher of a school in Ashington, which operates the scheme, "absolutely loves it".

"It seems to me to be a win-win," she said.

Ms Breach said there are around 1900 students at QEHS and Hexham Middle School, with around 850 pupils arriving and leaving by coach, 250 are driven, and 850 walk.

The school's new coach park is now in use.

Measures such as signage and markings including double yellow lines are in place around the schools, but Ms Breach said they were making 'no difference' to drivers' behaviour.

She said she has seen cars parked illegally, and that there is no enforcement.

"The scheme that they have put in doesn't help anything," she said.

A Road Safety Audit was undertaken at the end of September.

Ms Breach added: "We need to be persuading people to get out of cars, and especially kids for their health and wellbeing, in a clean place where they can safely walk to school."

The town councillors heard an Active Travel Tynedale survey found 69 per cent of people living near the school were in favour of the 'School Streets' scheme.

Ms Breach said typically neighbours would be exempt from the scheme. For example, a number plate recognition scheme could ensure they were not fined, she said.

Councillor Ginnie O'Farrell said she works at Hexham Middle School and said "as far as I can see I think travel is very-well managed by the staff there."

"I'm wondering where you would propose that they are dropped off instead," she said. "The school was essentially built in the wrong place.

"To me, Hexham is not a town that lends itself to drop-off points. All of the roads around the school have very narrow pavements."

She added: "I think it's possibly a stretch to say it's based on luck. The traffic does not move fast enough to cause a serious accident."

Dr Turner responded that because the traffic is slow, students will step out onto the road.

"I don't think I'm overegging it," she said. "The staff would not be out there if they were not concerned."

Ms Breach also asked whether it should be a 'teacher's duty' to stand for half an hour each morning and afternoon and ensure the children's safety.

Councillor Stephen Ball said he would be supportive of the idea but would like to see a "definitive proposal with costs, the extra streets etc".

Mayor of Hexham Derek Kennedy said: "I'm open to this. I don't think there's a perfect solution, I think it's mitigating risks."

He said while he thinks the principal of school streets is good, he has spoken to Cramlington councillors after the initiative was rolled out there and said they have found that "people don't stop bringing cars".

"They go somewhere else and have caused havoc in other parts of the town," he said.

"It's not a silver bullet solution, it does cause other issues."

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