School Streets: Barn Rise to be closed all day as Westdene Primary trials scheme

Barn Rise in Brighton will be closed for the whole of the school day from 8am until 4pm on Thursday, as Westdene Primary School takes part in a taster day for the School Streets scheme.

Access will be restricted in the road between its junctions with Bankside and Dene Vale, where the main entrance to the school is.

Residents will still have access, as well as Blue Badge holders and emergency services.

• SEE ALSO: School Streets: bollards installed to shut junction in Hove

The School Streets scheme, introduced as a trial in September last year, aimed to create more space for social distancing outside schools during drop-off and pick-up hours.

Westdene Primary School in Barn Rise

The scheme is also intended to improve safety outside schools and encourage active forms of travel, such as walking, cycling and scooting.

Nine schools took part in the trial and there are currently four schools running the scheme in Brighton and Hove.

Westdene Primary would join Brunswick Primary, St Luke’s Primary, Downs Infant, Downs Junior, St Nicolas CE Primary in closing the road outside school gates.

The school is closing Barn Rise for the full day so pupils can take part in activities on bike safety, air pollution and active travel, the council said.

Councillor Jamie Lloyd, deputy chairman of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee and councillor for Withdean ward said the school has been in "urgent need" of a road closure during drop-off and pick-up hours "for a long time".

He said: “I’m so pleased another primary school will get to trial a safer journey into school free of motor vehicles.

"As ward councillors, we have been working on how we can make this happen since our election in May 2019 so we are thrilled to see the first steps towards it.

“I have seen first-hand how brilliant School Streets is, it makes the roads outside schools much safer, the air cleaner and children and parents happier.

"All children should have the right to walk, wheel, scoot or cycle to school safely and this is an excellent way of delivering this.

Bollards installed in Somerhill Road in Hove earlier this year, to close the junction to motorists

“We’ve had a lot of positive feedback from the school communities where School Streets are in place and we’re hopeful that Westdene will be getting School Streets on a permanent basis.”

• SEE ALSO: Controversial junction closure leads to missed rubbish collections

Earlier this year, two junctions in the city were closed to motorists 24 hours a day as part of the School Streets scheme, with physical bollards installed in Somerhill Road in Hove and in Queen's Park Rise in Brighton.

Bollards installed in Queen's Park Rise

The changes, brought in through Experimental Traffic Orders, proved controversial with residents in the Queens Park Rise area.

Delays to rubbish collections earlier this year led one resident to describe the road closure as "farcical".

The council has said feedback from residents, the school community and other stakeholders will be taken into account before a decision is made on whether the "semi permanent" measures should be "made permanent, adjusted or reversed".