School Street scheme

A School Street is an active travel and traffic management scheme that improves road safety and air quality outside schools.

The aim is to encourage walking, wheeling, cycling, and scooting to schools by closing specific roads to create safer and healthier car free environments outside schools at the start and end of the school day at key times.

This helps reduce congestion and air pollution in the area by minimising the volume of vehicles entering the road or surrounding roads, making it easier and safer to walk or cycle to school. These measures can also help to address traffic and parking pressures and problems people living close to a school can experience due to school gate parking.

The School Streets scheme also aims to:

• Reduce traffic and parking pressures outside schools
• Discourage car journeys to school and encourage active travel – walking and cycling
• provide opportunities to improve physical and mental health
• provide opportunities for parents and children to travel to school together with their friends and socialise on the school run, boosting wellbeing, social skills, and sense of community. 
• support children so they arrive at school, energised and ready to learn  
• teach children road safety and travel independence, increasing their travel confidence especially as they transition into secondary schools
• their travel confidence especially as they transition into secondary schools

The current schools are:

• Templars Primary
• Cardinal Wiseman
• Southfields Primary
• Stanton Bridge Primary
• Ravensdale Primary

The times will vary at different schools due to different start and finish times. The times for the individual scheme will be included on the signs at the entrance to each zone and will be widely publicised locally. The scheme will only operate during term time (Monday to Friday) unless otherwise stated.

There will be gateway signs at the entrance and exit of each zone detailing the times that the restriction is in force, and violation of these restrictions will be an offense. The schemes are installed, subject to the support of residents, using an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO), which can stay in place for a maximum of 18 months. During this time, we will monitor and assess the impact of these changes and any objections to decide whether the scheme should be permanent. If the scheme is successful and supported by local people, it could become a permanent scheme.

Currently, we try to reduce the impact of inappropriate parking by enforcing waiting restrictions and ‘School-Keep-Clear’ markings. Feedback from residents and communities has highlighted that these traditional measures are not always effective and we are looking at new ways of addressing the issues.

Issues associated with school traffic are not unique to Coventry, and over the last few years, School Streets have been rolled out at various locations across the country as an innovative way to address issues associated with school traffic and parking.

For those who need to rely on the car and must drive to the school, you can continue to do so, but will need to park slightly further away and walk the last part of the journey.

We ask everyone to park responsibly, safely and to be considerate to residents when parking in the surrounding streets. Please ensure you are not parked on the pavement, blocking, or parked on or over a driveway.

Those holding valid Blue Badges needing to access a property within the restricted area will be able to apply for an exemption permit. Please note that existing parking restrictions still apply and you should avoid parking on these restrictions.