Brookburn School Street Trial

Frequently Asked Questions 

This FAQ document is intended to help support community engagement with School Streets at Brookburn Primary School and is a working document that will be regularly updated to help ensure everyone has correct and up to date information. It aims to include responses to questions that are received in correspondence or at public meetings.

End of Trial Feedback and Evaluation

Manchester Council is collecting comments regarding Brookburn Primary's School Street trial until 30th November. Local residents and the school community are invited to send feedback to the following email address before the end of the month: EngCP8@manchester.gov.uk

Manchester Council will be evaluating the trial and making decisions on next steps for Brookburn’s School Street. During this time, the council will be reviewing any comments received during the trial, responses to surveys, and evidence gathered through the university-led monitoring and evaluation schemes.

The council has given permission for Brookburn Primary to continue with its School Street during the evaluation phase. There is currently no indicated timelines as to when the evaluation process will be completed. 

 

What is Brookburn's School Street Trial?

A School Street is a road outside a school with a temporary restriction on most motor vehicle traffic during morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up times. The restriction applies to school traffic and through traffic. These School Streets have been shown in other parts of the UK to reduce overall vehicle traffic in school areas, improve road safety and air quality, and facilitate more active modes of travel among pupils. That is why the programme is being trialled in 7 schools across Manchester. 

The School Street at Brookburn Primary operates on Brookburn Road between the cobbled lane and Claude Road junction (from house numbers 5 to 39 Brookburn Road). The trial runs between 8:30-9:10 and 15:10-15:50 during term time (excluding weekends and school holidays) for a 6-month period with a phased increase in frequency until 30th November 2023. The trial started on the 2nd of February and operated once a week on Thursdays for the first month. The trial was temporarily paused from mid-March to 30th May while Manchester Council updated the Experimental Traffic Regulation Order.

From 5th September, 2023, School Streets at Brookburn Primary is operating on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays with the aim of a phased increase to 5 days a week Monday to Friday until 30th November, 2023.

The frequency of marshalled School Streets closures is subject to change depending on volunteer marshal availability. We will do our best to inform the community of any changes to the planned frequency as the trial progresses.

 

How does a School Street work?

This change in road usage is enacted through an Experimental Traffic Restriction Order (ETRO) issued by Manchester City Council. The Experimental Traffic Regulation Order means that there would be the option to have a School Street on every school day for a six month period. The school will have flexibility to decide how often the restrictions will be enforced within the permitted days and times and this will depend on the capacity of the school and volunteer availability.

Signage has been erected on Brookburn Road indicating to road users the section between signs is now a School Street zone. The location and nature of proposed signage is shown on the map below. Click here to view a larger version.

On days when the School Street is operated by volunteer marshals, temporary Road Closed signs and removable bollards will be used at the points of the road closure to clearly identify the School Street zone. Volunteer marshals wearing high visibility clothing will help to direct traffic, answer questions, and accompany exempt vehicles requiring access. 

The restricted section of the road will be closed to school-bound vehicle traffic and general through traffic. Parents/carers will not be able to park within the restricted area to drop off/collect pupils. Parents/carers are asked to walk or cycle to school, or to park their vehicles further away and then walk, cycle or scoot the rest of the way. Parents/carers needing to drive to school will be asked to use Chorlton Ees car park.

There is an exemption for all residents living within the closure zone (marked in green on the map above) who will have full vehicle access to and from their properties, along with all essential visitors to exempt households (deliveries, taxis, carers, building contractors, etc) and essential services (mail carriers, ambulance and police services, busses, bin lorries, etc). On days when the closure is marshalled, motor vehicles needing access in and out of the closure zone will be escorted by a volunteer marshal to ensure the safety of pupils and residents who are walking or cycling.

 

How will the trial monitor traffic, gather data, and collect feedback?

This programme is part of a trial and data gathering will be in place to monitor traffic patterns for both motorised and active modes of travel in the area. Data gathering will be conducted in the following ways:

Manchester Council Highways Department

- Manchester Council is collecting comments regarding Brookburn Primary's School Street trial until 30th November. Local residents and the school community are invited to send feedback to the following email address: EngCP8@manchester.gov.uk

Self reported student travel surveys conducted using Living Streets WOW Tracker programme

- Click here to read about the WOW travel tracker

Manual Traffic Counts

- Brookburn School Street volunteers will be conducting manual traffic counts periodically throughout the trial period in order to compare baseline traffic counts with traffic counts on days when the School Street is operating. These manual traffic counts are also important for capturing traffic data on areas where electronic monitoring is not in place. These manual counts are supported by the Listen 2 Manchester project, Open Data Manchester, and WalkRide Greater Manchester.

Electronic Traffic Counts

- An open source Telraam traffic camera is installed on Brookburn Road and available for access by the public. This camera displays hour by hour data on volume and type of traffic which passes, as well as pedestrians and cycles. Comparisons can be easily made on a date and time basis. The graphs below show traffic on a School Street day on the left and non-trial day on the right (motor vehicles shown as light blue and dark blue). Click here to view the Telraam traffic data for Brookburn Road.

University of Manchester Tyndall Centre Research Study 

- This study involves the installation of traffic monitoring cameras as well as interviews with local residents and trial participants. These additional traffic monitoring cameras will provide evidence of traffic displacement or traffic evaporation that has occurred as a result of the School Street, and will be analysed and used as a key part of the learning and progressing of the scheme. Information with the link to a survey was distributed at the end of October to 400 households in the immediate vicinity of the School Street.

University of Aberdeen "Listen 2 Manchester" Citizen Science Research Study

- Seismometers have been installed to monitor vibrations from passing traffic that can be reliably interpreted into a measure of car traffic volume.

• Click here to read about how seismometers will be used to monitor traffic as part of the Listen 2 Manchester project.
• Click here to learn how to view live data from the seismometers.
• Click here to read the summary of findings from this research.

Seismometers are placed in the locations shown as red dots on the map below:

Initial data from the seismometers shows there is no increase in traffic on adjacent roads during the trial times.

Stakeholder feedback form

- Students, parents, teachers, and residents are welcome to provide feedback throughout the trial period with this feedback form managed by Brookburn PTA. You can submit your comments by clicking on this link. 

 

Why School Streets?

School Street schemes offer a proactive solution for communities to tackle air pollution, poor health and road danger reduction. 

They enable this by making the streets more accessible for the school and wider community, and in conjunction with other measures, help create a calmer and safer environment near the school which encourages and enables pupils, staff, parents/carers and visitors to more regularly walk, cycle or scoot for an active, healthier and sustainable journey to and from school. 

The wider case for School Streets has been developed by local and national bodies in conjunction with various stakeholders over the course of several years. Statistics from the Department for Transport reveal that 14% of children killed on Great Britains roads in 2018 were between the morning school run (7-9am) and 23% after school between 3-5pm. A report from insurer Admiral shows a 43% fall of road collisions during the holidays at school run time.

By reducing school traffic, school streets have been shown to reduce congestion on streets around a school, and to reduce the overall number of local car trips, thereby reducing carbon emissions and improving air quality for all.  By encouraging a more active school run, they have also been shown to help communities develop more active travel habits as a whole, which is good for people, place and planet.

Click on the links below to learn more about School Streets: 

• Why School Streets? - Brookburn active travel fact sheet
• Transport for Greater Manchester "Boss the School Run"
• Sustrans guide to school streets
• Living Streets guide to safer routes to school including school streets toolkit
• Schoolstreets initiative website
• Hackney School Street toolkit 

 
Click on the following links for more information about air quality and childrens health:

• Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health UK air quality position statement
• UNICEF Healthy Air for every child: A call for national action
• How Manchester's Air Pollution Impacts Our Health and Puts a Strain on the NHS

Why Brookburn?

In May 2021, Transport for Greater Manchester announced availability of some funding and support for up to 50 schools in the region to develop School Streets with the aim of tackling air pollution, promoting healthy lifestyles, and working towards the region's zero carbon target.  Brookburn was put forward as a potential school, based on the learning and success of the previous trials, the suitability of the site, and the identified need to take further steps for a safer, healthier school run. 

Brookburn is one of 7 schools across Manchester and one of fifty across Greater Manchester trialling the School Streets scheme. Due to its experience holding four one day School Streets trials, Brookburn Primary was invited by Manchester City Council to participate in this six month scheme. This has in part been in response to issues raised by residents, school staff and parents relating to pavement parking, car idling, congestion and dangerous motorist behaviour around the school at drop off and pick up times. The trial is one aspect of a wider vision to make the journey to and from school a safer and more active one for the local community.

 

Who is behind this trial?

This initiative is a community partnership between Brookburn Primary, Brookburn PTA, Manchester Council, Transport for Greater Manchester, and WalkRide Greater Manchester. The cost of the Experimental Traffic Order has been funded by Transport for Greater Manchester and Manchester City Council for the purpose of this trial. The coordination of the trial is carried out by Brookburn PTA and Brookburn Primary School. Volunteer marshals are made up of members of the school community and local residents.

 

Who do I contact if I have questions?

Any questions can be emailed to activetravel@brookburnpta.com. Where appropriate, correspondence to this address will be shared with Brookburn Primary's senior leadership, Manchester City councillors for Chorlton ward and local MCC neighbourhood officers. If you have feedback about the trial, please click here to fill out our feedback form. You can also send comments directly to Manchester Council's highways department by emailing EngCP8@manchester.gov.uk before 30th November.

How can I get involved?

Each School Streets closure will require at least four volunteer marshals to oversee the safe and smooth movement of students, families and traffic through the area. Volunteers will undertake training about how a School Street works, who has access, and their role and responsibilities. Parents/carers and local residents are invited to support the trial by volunteering as a marshal. To find out more about what's involved, click here to watch a video about what's involved in marshalling a School Street. Or, please sign up and indicate your availability by clicking here or email activetravel@brookburnpta.com

 

How have residents and stakeholders been consulted?

The School Street trial is subject to ongoing dialogue and feedback, with the view that this is the most robust way to ensure plans are developed in a way that works for all stakeholders. All feedback and dialogue on how we best achieve our shared aims are welcome.

A one-off formal consultation is not considered to be appropriate or adequate in the trialling of School Streets for a number of reasons. In particular, it is impossible to accurately predict what exactly may happen on any given day,  how this will differ (or not) on different weekdays, in different weather, and over the course of a whole school year. It is best for all stakeholders that the scheme is tested, monitored, and learning shared through ongoing reflection and this approach will be the backbone of developing School Streets through a series of trials at Brookburn. This will be facilitated through ongoing opportunities to feedback via community meetings, email, and this online feedback form. 

The consultation process to date has included:

• Pre-consultation - informal PTA-led information sharing, engagement, dialogue and listening at 3 community engagement meetings during June-July 2022. An initial letter from Brookburn School and PTA which included notice of three, one-off, trial days which were intended to help form part of this more informal engagement and learning process. These trial dates were subsequently cancelled due to concerns raised by residents and to give time and space for the dialogue that followed.
• Formal consultation - Manchester Council-led legal consultation on the proposed six month trial, August 2022. Manchester City Council Highways Department issued a formal letter of consultation to residents living within the restricted area and on streets affected by the proposed diversion. The consultation for Brookburns proposed trial received the most replies out of the 7 School Street trial sites in Manchester. The majority of responses were supportive of the trial with only a small number of objections. Based on the response, Manchester Council has moved forward with the process of establishing the trial and a public notice of the experimental traffic regulation order was posted 10th October 2022.
• Community information meeting - Following MCC's consultation and confirmation of the trial, a community information meeting was held in January 2023 for residents and members of the school community to develop and shape the School Streets trial. 
  Further consultation with Ward Councillors, the schools, residents, and other stakeholders will continue. Please note the nature of ETROs allow for a 6-month trial during which comments and feedback are gathered, and amendments to the scheme can be made. Following this 6-month period, a decision is then made on whether to make the scheme permanent, abandon or continue the experiment. ETROs can last for up to 18 months and will revert at this point if they are not made permanent.
• Mid-Trial Update meeting - Local residents and the school community were invited to a meeting in July 2023 where the lead researchers for the two university-led research projects on the Brookburn School Streets trial provided information and initial findings for their studies looking at the impact of the trial on traffic volume. Professor David Healy from the University of Aberdeen's department of Geosciences is leading a UKRI/NERC funded research project called "Listen To Manchester", which uses seismometers to measure traffic volume. The initial data from this research shows there is no noticeable increase in traffic on adjacent neighbouring areas. Dr. Sarah Mander is a researcher with the University of Manchester's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change research and is leading a project to monitor and evaluate the impact of the trial in regards to traffic, residents, and the school community. She explained that the traffic monitoring aspect had just recently begun and she is expecting to conduct interviews and focus groups in the Autumn term. The meeting also involved hearing from local residents and recording feedback on what about the trial wasn't working, was working well, and could be changed or improved. Notes from this meeting can be read by clicking on this link.  
• University of Manchester Tyndall Centre survey of local residents - a leaflet with a link to a survey was distributed to 400 households in the immediate vicinity of the School Street at the end of October 2023. The responses will be collated and evaluated and findings will be shared with Manchester Council
• Survey of Brookburn parents and carers - Brookburn Primary's senior leadership team issued a Google form survey on 9th November 2023 to parents and carers asking whether they would support a proposed permanent School Street scheme. The results from this survey will be shared with Manchester Council
• Manchester Council Highways invitation for feedback - Manchester Council is collecting comments regarding Brookburn Primary's School Street trial until 30th November. The PTA and school leadership have sent emails and messages to local residents and the school community inviting them to send feedback to the following email address before the end of November: EngCP8@manchester.gov.uk

 

What has been the process to date?

Prior to the start of the 6-month trial, four one day School Street trials were held on Brookburn Road (February 2020, November 2020, June 2021, October 2021).  

These trials were organised by Brookburn PTA and Brookburn Primary's senior leadership team, with support from school staff, local Councillors, local residents and the Council. 

The one-off trials provided opportunities to test and learn and to start to surface any potential challenges. They also supported wider engagement with pupils, parents/guardians and local stakeholders on the question of how to reduce the number of car trips to and from the school and how to enable a more green, active and safe school run.

Research and engagement on the School Streets at Brookburn has included:

- 22nd September 2019 - Play Street held on a Sunday with positive feedback received from residents and the school community and suggestions for a weekday School Street

- October 2019 - Air quality survey conducted over 3 days by a Brookburn parent using a Flow pollution monitor. The survey found air pollution levels ranged from moderate to very high (above 100 AQI) during school drop off and pick up times. The pollutants measured consisted of:

• PM 2.5 particuates under 2.5 microns diameter
• PM10 particulates under 10 microns diameter
• NO2 - Nitrogen dioxide, mainly from combustion
• VOC Volatile Organic Compounds (mainly carbon)

- February 2020 - "Greener Brookburn Survey" of students, school staff, parents, and the wider community to gauge opinions on priorities for environmental initiatives at Brookburn. Respondents identified air pollution and the climate emergency as two of their top five concerns and priorities. 

- 14th February 2020 - School Street held on Brookburn Road

- October/November 2020 - Sustrans conducts a school-run traffic survey and site assessment of every Chorlton primary school, including Brookburn Primary, to help identify a potential site for the Our Streets Chorlton School Streets Case Study. 

- November 2020 - "Brookburn Community Travel Survey" of parents/guardians to understand how families travel to school, what their barriers are to active travel, what would facilitate more active modes of transport, and views on the School Streets scheme. Key findings showed that 77% of respondents supported at least a weekly School Street with 57% in favour of a daily School Street.

- 26th-27th November 2020 - Teachers conduct a "Student Travel Survey" with pupils to find out how they travelled to school on a regular school day compared with a School Streets day. Survey results found that car journeys were reduced by half on School Street days from 27% of students travelling by car to 14%.

- 27th November 2020 - School Street held on Brookburn Road

- December 2020 - Our Streets Chorlton identifies Barlow Hall Primary as the site of its School Streets case study. As part of the case study, Our Streets Chorlton works with Open Data Manchester to monitor air quality and traffic data around Barlow Hall Primary and other areas of Chorlton. This also involves installing a Telraam traffic camera on Brookburn Road. The Our Streets Chorlton staff continue to support Brookburn Primary and 9 other area schools by creating the School Champions Network so that parents and school staff from each school can regularly meet to share ideas, learnings, and develop plans for improving active travel at Chorlton schools over a period of 18 months.

- 18th June 2021 - School Street held on Brookburn Road and Brookburn school/PTA works alongside Our Streets Chorlton and a number of local schools to hold a week of School Streets and climate action events across Chorlton

- 20th October 2021 - School Street held on Brookburn Road

- 2nd November 2020 - Brookburn's School Streets trials are featured in a Times Education Supplement article titled "How to cut car use and create a walk-to-school culture"

- 1st March 2022 - Our Streets Chorlton community forum on School Streets with presentation from Manchester Council to announce that Brookburn has been invited to be a trial site for the TfGM funded School Streets trial. This also marked the completion of the Our Streets Chorlton project - click here for a summary of Our Street Chorlton's work with local schools.

- 16th/17th June 2022 - Brookburn PTA and Brookburn Primary School issue letter to parents and local residents providing information about the school being identified as a proposed site for the TfGM School Streets trial. Click here to read the letter to local residents.

- 29th June 2022 - Online community information meeting held to discuss the proposed 6-month trial and listen to resident and school community questions, suggestions, and feedback about the proposal

- 6th July 2022 - In-person community information meeting held at the Bowling Green Pub to discuss the proposed 6-month trial and listen to resident and school community questions, suggestions, and feedback about the proposal

- 15th July 2022 - Info table at Brookburn Summer Ceilidh where the School Streets team was joined by TfGM's active travel officer and the Listen 2 Manchester project which will be monitoring traffic using seismometers 

- 10th August 2022 - Manchester City Council Highways Service issues a public consultation letter to residents affected by the proposed Experimental Traffic Regulation Order allowing for regular School Streets at Brookburn. The consultation for Brookburns proposed trial received the most replies out of the 7 School Street trial sites in Manchester. The majority of responses were supportive of the trial with only a small number of objections.

- 10th October 2022 - Manchester City Council issues a public notice for Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders for 7 sites across Manchester for the School Streets trial. Click here to read the public notice. Click here to read the experimental traffic regulation order (ETRO) for Brookburn Road.

- 1st December, 2022 - Signage as indicated in the diagram on the ETRO is erected by Manchester Council highways department on Brookburn Road 

- 16th January, 2023 - Removable bollards are installed by Manchester Council highways department on Brookburn Road

- 23rd January, 2023 - Brookburn Primary and Brookburn Primary hold a public information meeting to explain how the School Streets trial will work, including the new infrastructure such as signage and removable bollards, resident exemption scheme, traffic monitoring and data gathering, and timelines for phased implementation. 

- 2nd February, 2023 - The trial starts and runs weekly on Thursdays.

- 16th February, 2023 - Initial findings from traffic monitoring for the trial shared at the Spring Term PTA Meeting

- 9th March, 2023 - Trial is temporarily paused while Manchester Council updates the Experimental Traffic Regulation Order.

- 30th May, 2023 - An updated Experimental Traffic Regulation Order is issued and is in effect for up to 18 months. Click here to read the updated ETRO.

- 17th July, 2023 - A Mid-trial Update meeting is held with community members to hear information about two university-led research projects studying the impact of the trial on traffic volume. Community members are also given the opportunity to provide feedback and ask questions. Notes from this meeting can be read by clicking on this link.  

 
Will the closure lead to traffic simply being displaced to further down the road and create congestion in other areas?

As part of this trial, traffic monitoring of adjacent areas and roads will be carried out using electronic traffic counting equipment by the University of Manchester's Tyndall Centre and the University of Aberdeen's Listen 2 Manchester project. School Streets volunteers will also carry out manual traffic counts to supplement the above studies.

Initial research findings from the Listen to Manchester project can be read by clicking on this link. The study found there is no increase in traffic in areas adjacent to the School Street.

Previous findings from an evidence based review by Edinburgh Napier University found that closing streets around schools to traffic at drop-off and pick up times can help lower congestion, improves air quality and doesn't cause problems to local traffic flow. In almost all examples of School Streets looked at, the total number of cars on streets around the school and local area reduced significantly. School Streets cut car traffic on surrounding streets. There is no evidence to show that if cars move out of the roads around a school, that they cause road safety problems elsewhere in the local area. No studies showed any negative impacts on road safety from motorised traffic flows being adjusted. Click here to download the full report.

Additionally, a study carried out by the University of Westminster’s Active Travel Academy (ATA) found that a meta analysis of low traffic neighbourhoods showed that boundary roads did not demonstrate an increase in vehicular traffic. Click here to read the report.

 

Have you thought about options such as walking buses, speed bumps, zebra crossings?

As part of the trial process, we are making note of all ideas for improving road safety and air quality around school. Please send ideas by email to activetravel@brookburnpta.com or submit them via our feedback form. School Streets are a known effective tool for promoting active travel and improving road safety and air quality around schools, which are our main objectives. 

Other traffic management and traffic calming suggestions were put forward at the two public meetings to date. These can be explored further during the course of the trial:

• Encourage parents/carers to park in Irish Club car park, Bowling Green or down the cobbled lane
• Park and ride/park and stride. 
• More zebra crossings around Chorlton and at Brookburn. 
• Improve safe routes to school generally.