07 November 2020
A year ago more than half the children attending St Monica's school arrived by car and only just over a quarter by 'active travel' - walking, cycling, scooting or skating. Now, after the introduction of a school street and the Fox Lane low-traffic neighbourhood, the proportions are almost exactly reversed. The headteacher has now begun cycling to school and is suggesting that those parents who still drive all the way to school should think about other ways of getting there.
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28 October 2020
The government has rejected a petition calling for an immediate withdrawal of funding and support for low-traffic neighbourhoods, cycle lanes and school streets and has issued a strong defence of such measures. The response from the Department for Transport states that such schemes are 'a key part of the Government's efforts to reduce harmful emissions from transport, as well as to help make people healthier'
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07 September 2020
Sometimes it can take a childs-eye view to see how we can do things better, and a new competition for young budding transport planners, launched today, is intended to take advantage of this to help us speed up the decarbonisation of transport and in particular of the school run. The national walking charity Living Streets is teaming up with the Transport Planning Society to offer a prize for the best poster designed by a child of primary school age showing environmentally friendly ways to travel to school.
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07 September 2020
All of us, to greater or lesser extent, shape the world that children have to grow up in. And, without our realising it, our lifestyle and behaviour might be contributing to the problems that lead to so many children growing up obese, unfit, unhealthy and with poor mental health. Instead of blaming their parents, we should consider whether we are part of the problem.
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05 September 2020
A school street scheme comes into force on Monday 7th September outside St Paul's primary school in Ringwood Way, Winchmore Hill. Between 8.15 and 9.15 in the morning and 2.45 and 3.45 in the afternoon Ringwood Way will be a pedestrian and cycle zone between its junctions with Station Road and Shrubbery Gardens. This normally busy cut-through will be closed to all vehicles other than those with specific exemptions.
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31 August 2020
An alliance of eight sustainable transport charities has issued a press release appealing to families to support their children to walk, cycle or use public transport as much as possible as they return to school in order both to protect their children's health and wellbeing and to support the effort to reduce carbon emissions to net zero in order to avoid climate catastrophe.
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26 August 2020
With children soon due to return to their classrooms, the issue of how pupils will travel to and from school is becoming urgent. There are serious questions about how many will be able resume using public transport. Across the country the government is telling local authorities that they want at least half of pupils with journeys of less than two miles who have previously used buses to switch to active travel - walking or cycling. In London it's still unclear under what circumstances free public transport will be available to schoolchildren. This article points readers in the direction of some recently published information relevant to school transport in the age of Covid-19.
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01 July 2020
Enfield Council has published information about its progress in obtaining funding for urgent Streetspace schemes, designed to enable more walking and cycling post-lockdown in a situation where people will be unable or reluctant to use public transport. A document recently published on the council's Let's Talk website also includes updates about the status of planned low-traffic neighbourhoods in the Fox Lane, Connaught Gardens and Bowes Primary areas.
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and forum comments
17 June 2020
On 4th June Enfield Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committee met to consider the re-opening of schools in the borough as the Covid-19 lockdown is relaxed. At the meeting questions submitted by the National Education Union (NEU) were read out and answers given. In a GlobalNet21 webinar, Francis Sealey interviews Clare Docherty, Secretary of the NEU's Enfield District, about the issues raised by the union and how well she felt the scrutiny process worked.
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16 June 2020
Need help finding your way around the confusing process of getting your child into a primary school? Finding that you live in a school catchment 'black hole'? A new website run by two Palmers Green parents who've been through all this could be just what you need.
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07 June 2020
Enfield Council has submitted a bid to TfL for funding for a number of Covid Streetspace measures: pop-up cycle lanes, quieter neighbourhoods, modal filters to block through traffic, school streets and temporary footway widening. A revised design has been developed for the Fox Lane Quieter Neighbourhood and will be shared with the community prior to implementation.
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27 May 2020
Bowes Southgate Green school will not accept any new intake in September 2021 or thereafter. Negotiations aimed at setting up a permanent (and separate) school at the site in Wilmer Way which Enfield Learning Trust leases from Broomfield School have been unsuccessful. Bowes school will continue to accept siblings of pupils at the Southgate Green school and accommodate them at its main site in Bowes Road. This news was published in a recent newsletter issued by Fox Lane & District Residents Association (FLDRA), which also includes an analysis of the overall situation regarding primary school places in the western part of our area.
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26 May 2020
Find out everything you need to know on how to ask your council for a School Street to a) reduce air pollution exposure and b) overcrowding at the school gate.
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19 May 2020
Enfield Council's cabinet member for children's services has written to the education secretary asking him to reconsider the Government's decision to press ahead with the directive to partially reopen schools on 1 June 2020.
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29 April 2020
Public consultation on proposals to build two new schools and further housing on former hospital land at Chase Farm is being held online. Responses are requested by 7th May.
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01 March 2020
Enfield's first two School Streets went into operation on Monday 24th February. Photographs taken on that day in Tile Kiln Lane show pupils from Oakthorpe School strolling along in the middle of the road, free of the usual daily noise, noxious emissions and danger from cars.
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07 January 2020
Enfield's first 'school street' schemes - outside St Monica's primary school and Oakthorpe primary school - are likely to go live after the February half term. The council hopes to complete a further three schemes by this spring. The rate of implementation in the next financial year and thereafter will depend on availability of funding and the degree of interest and commitment shown by schools.
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01 January 2020
The January 2020 issue of Enfield Dispatch is now available and includes a couple of features about our corner of the borough
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27 November 2019
Parents of children at Bowes Southgate Green school are planning to protest on Friday about Enfield Council's failure to provide assurances about securing a permanent home for the school.
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24 November 2019
Enfield Council has notified its intention to create 'school streets' for two primary schools - Oakthorpe in Palmers Green and St Monica's in Southgate.
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