Details of a £3m scheme to improve road safety around local schools will be heard by Manchester City Council’s Neighbourhoods and Environment Scrutiny Committee next week.
The funding, which is drawn from Manchester City Council and Transport for Greater Manchester pots, will be used to create safer roads around primary schools, with 34 schools identified to benefit from the first phase of the scheme.
Schemes have been designed for each school, pending public consultation, with proposed interventions including new pedestrian or zebra crossings, additional pedestrian guardrails, bollards and new yellow lines.
£800,000 will be invested in the first phase, with a programme for further work to be carried out from 2019 onwards currently being developed.
New cycle routes have also been agreed, to improve cycle accessibility and encourage safer cycling to Loreto High School and Chorlton High School.
The new scheme follows a review of school road safety conducted by the council, which has recommended a package of measures, including additional trial safety schemes to be developed in partnership with selected schools, pending consultation with parents.
The report also details how the planning process is used to ensure road safety is prioritised around new school developments – for example, by allowing the council to order developers to include a series of additional road safety measures within plans for the proposed Didsbury High School.
Targeted enforcement of school “zig zag” Keep Clear zones is also carried out by council enforcement officers, with more than 1,200 Fixed Penalty Notices having been issued to drivers over the past twelve months.
