Children at a primary school are walking into a safer and less polluted environment after roads now close outside its gates.
Sharples Primary School, on Hugh Lupus Street, launched its School Street scheme this week, restricting vehicle access during the morning drop-off period.
This will make a huge difference to pupils, who over the years have been 'campaigning' to make the road outside their school safer.
Yahya from Year 1 said: “My mum said to my dad, when you walk on the road you know a car isn't going to come up behind you.
"I think it's good because of this. It makes it safer.”
The initiative aims to reduce congestion outside the school, improve air quality and encourage more children to walk, cycle or scoot to class.
Headteacher Gemma Partington said: "We really wanted the street to stay safe for the children, so we wanted to reduce traffic around school and also thinking about the environment, keeping the air pollution down.
“It encourages active travel so that the children are looking at healthy lifestyles and really long-term changes in the way and our habits really for travel."
The School Street operates between 8.30am and 8.50am during term time, with access controlled by volunteers and school staff.
Amina from Year 3 said: “It is good because then when we are walking up the road to school no one can get hurt.”
Ahmed from Year 3 added: “I don't mind walking the extra steps as it is healthier.”
Billy, also from Year 3 said: “I feel safer travelling to school now because my mum can get through with the pram on the pavements.”
Eesa from Year 3 said: “It is a lot safer now as the cars parked on the pavement have been reduced.”
Only exempt vehicles, including residents and authorised staff, are permitted to enter during the restriction period.
Street volunteer Nikola Kalasova said: “For 20 mins or so of your time in a morning, most schools should definitely look into that end, come on board and visit.”
Another volunteer, Peter Smith, said: “It means safety for the kids, making sure they can get to school safe. You hear too many stories of kids getting hurt by cars.”
The scheme follows successful School Street trial days carried out across Bolton earlier this year.
Alba from Year 1 said: “There can’t be any cars coming so we can walk up the road.”
Maaz from Year 1 said: “We can go to our class more safely.”
Muhammad Hasnain from Year 1 added: “Because the road is less busy because there's not lots of cars around.”
Bolton Council is working with schools across the borough to introduce the measures as part of wider efforts to improve road safety and promote active travel.
Ms Partington added: "Hopefully, it's all about habit change, isn't it?
“So we don't have many children, obviously within this area there's quite a lot of schools, you've got the high school as well as other primary schools, so it is heavily congested, so we just wanted to make sure that our children could get in and out of school safely."
School leaders said the scheme has also been designed to take local residents into account.
Residents are issued with passes allowing them to access the street during the restricted period, while staff are also exempt from the closure.
Deputy headteacher Martin Slater said: "It's just a change to hopefully help with a few different things like the safety of the environment and stuff like that, and it's just really making that clear to everyone, isn't it, that those are the reasons really why we think it's a good initiative."
Ms Partington added: "We recognise that they live here and we want to make sure that everybody gets to school safely."
Share