Agenda and minutes

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

(i)            to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)          where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)         the meeting notes at the start of the meeting at the item ‘Reserves’ that the Reserve Member is or will be attending as a reserve;

(iv)         if a Reserve Member whose intention to attend has been noted arrives after the commencement of the meeting, then that Reserve Member can only act as a Member from the start of the next item of business on the agenda after his/her arrival.

RESOLVED: To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Members:-

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

(a)          all Members of the Panel;

(b)          all other Members present.

RESOLVED:  To note that

(1)            the Declarations of Interests published in advance of the meeting on the Council’s website were taken as read.  The following further declarations were made at the meeting for agenda item 3 – Report – School Street Schemes:

·       Councillor Kairul Marikar declared a non-pecuniary interest in that their niece’s sons attend Grimsdyke School.

(2)            Members of the Committee and Co-opted Members who had declared interests remained in the virtual meeting whilst the matters were considered and voted upon.

The Panel received a report which provided Members with details about the six-month extension of the four school streets schemes trials in the London Streetspace Programme following their special meeting on 22 April 2021 and the results of a recent public consultation to consider the future of the schemes.

An officer gave a brief presentation highlighting:

·                 The school street scheme was part of the wider packages from 2020, there was a 18-month experimental term for the schemes and the trials were agreed to be extended for a further 6 months, during that time feedback was received from the local community.  The report set out the response from the community, circa 150 comments, which had shown a negative sentiment towards the schemes. Those that had responded negatively ended to live further from the schemes.

·                 The negative themes from the feedback received revolved around access for deliveries, convenience, traffic and parking on surrounding roads.

·                 A final consultation had involved the local community and there had been a separate consultation with the school community.  It was found that the school community was much more positive.  It was noted that there was strong support for Grimsdyke and Park High schools street scheme, 50/50 support from Newton Farm School and Marlborough School had shown more opposition towards the scheme.

·                 All Head Teachers had shown support and could see the benefits to the school community, the school pupils had shown support, with 90% in most cases supporting the scheme.

·                 During the consultation, a petition had been received in regard to the Marlborough School street scheme, where residents were opposed to the school street scheme.

·                 The report’s recommendations sought the Panel’s views as to whether the individual schemes should be removed or retained.  It was highlighted that all schemes had an experimental status and the maximum length of time an experimental scheme could continue was 18 months.  There was an end date of 31 March 2022 for these experimental schemes.

The Chair thanked the officer for their presentation and invited questions from the Panel.

·                 A Panel Member referred to appendix A and noted that the most recent traffic counts had taken place in July 2021 and questioned whether these could be relied upon why there had not been a more recent traffic count.  An officer explained that all of the available funding had been used and therefore no further surveys could be undertaken but that he was of the view that the July surveys provided a reasonable understanding of the traffic conditions around the schools.

The Chair introduced the Headteacher and staff from Newton Farm School. Two videos were shown that explained the school street scheme in relation to Grimsdyke and Newton Farm Schools.

The Head Teacher from Newton Farm School explained that, from a school’s perspective, the scheme had supported the physical and mental health of students.  They noted that active travel rates had increased, those that lived further away parked and walked part of the way.  The scheme had lowered their concern of traffic being  ...  view the full minutes text for item 150.

The audio recording of this meeting can be found at the following link:

https://moderngov.harrow.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=260&MId=65278