There are plans make areas around 100 Greater Manchester schools vehicle free at peak times by 2030
Vehicles are to be barred from roads close to a primary school during busy periods. Wigan borough’s tenth school street will launch at Westleigh St Paul’s primary this Friday (February 27).
The council said they would be restricting access to motorised vehicles at drop-off and pick-up times.
Appropriately enough, the ‘school street’ resrictions will apply to the junction of School Street and Liza Street with Westleigh Lane.
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Wigan council said the launch moves closer to hitting a target of creating 100 ‘school streets’ across Greater Manchester in the next four years.
The authority said the initiative intends to ‘improve road safety and make schools much safer to walk, wheel, or scoot to’.
The scheme will mean the closure of School Street and Liza Street in the morning and afternoon between the hours of 8am and 9.30am and 2.30pm and 4pm.
A Wigan council spokesperson said: “With the ambition of reaching 100 School Streets across Greater Manchester by 2030, the scheme will require the road closures.
“Staff will on hand to monitor to project and prevent vehicle access. “Residents and businesses can apply for a school street exemption if their vehicle is registered to an address within the area covered by the restrictions.”
The Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) website lists nine other such schemes in Wigan borough.
They are close to Leigh Central Primary, Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, Leigh, Leigh St Peters C of E Primary School, Lamberhead Green Community Primary School, Orrell, Ince CofE Primary School, Ince, St Williams Catholic Primary School, Ince, St Thomas C of E Junior and Infants School, Golborne, St John’s C of E Primary School, Abram and St Edmund Arrowsmith Catholic High School, Ashton-in-Makerfield.
TfGM said there are currently 37 school streets in Greater Manchester and ‘we’re on track to reach 60 in the next year’.
‘School streets’ are created by introducing a traffic regulation order and related signs to make the roads outside the school a pedestrian and cyclist zone.