Row over school road closure plans

Councillor Ian Snowdon has called for state-funded Manor Primary School in Didcot to be included in the road closure scheme

A decision to include three independent schools on an initial list for a road closure scheme has been described as "scandalous".

Critics have also said the School Streets plan in Oxfordshire - which will see roads outside certain schools closed at pick-up and drop-off times - is "Oxford-centric".

Six out of the seven schools included in the next phase of the scheme are in the city.

Oxfordshire County Council said only initial discussions were being held and changes were likely to be made to the programme.

Mr Snowdon said he had been fighting the plans for nearly a year

Conservative county councillor Ian Snowdon has argued the state-funded Manor Primary School in Didcot should be added to the next phase of School Streets.

He said: "For nearly a year I've been fighting for this.

"In phase one, three out of the four schools were in Oxford, and now I've discovered that six out of the seven schools that benefit from phase two again are in Oxford.

"Three of them are private schools... to me that's just scandalous.

"[In Didcot], we're having to feed off crumbs of what's left at the table from Oxford city because all the funding seems to be pumped into that area."

Parent governor and resident Alun Davies said he had seen some near-misses outside Manor Primary School

Parents and teachers have said the area outside Manor Primary is dangerous at pick-up and drop-off times.

Parent governor and resident Alun Davies said: "There's nowhere to turn around in this close, so everybody has to do a three-point turn.

"They mount the curb. There's kids running out in the street. I've seen two or three near misses just in casual passing."

Oxfordshire County Council said it was including the school in its proposed phase three programme, which would be dependent on a successful bid to the government for Active Travel funding.

It added phase two of the scheme was still in development.

Councillor Andrew Gant has defended criticism of the authority's plans

Liberal Democrat county councillor Andrew Gant, who is cabinet member for highway management, said: "We know which [schools] we're talking to but no schemes have yet been designed and it's possible there may be changes to that.

"This is going in phases, the phases are limited by budget and by other factors but we will continue to talk to anybody where this scheme could be appropriate."

He also responded to criticism that too many of the schools pencilled in for the next phase of School Streets were in Oxford.

"I would love to extend these benefits across every part of Oxfordshire," he said.

"If we can do that in towns and villages around the county then that is absolutely what we should do and what we must do - but this is an ongoing process."

What is the School Streets initiative?

School Streets is a scheme that closes roads near schools at pick-up and drop-off times.

Some closures are enforced through volunteer marshals or bollards and some use ANPR cameras, where fines can be issued for infringements.

Exemptions can be made for those that need to drive near the school - for example residents living within the school street scheme, or disabled people.

The purpose of School Streets is to improve safety for children and encourage more families to use alternative transport to vehicles to get to school.

Six out of the seven schools included in the next phase of council's scheme are in Oxford

Oxfordshire County Council held an initial trial of nine School Streets in 2021, with funding through the government's Active Travel scheme.

Four of those schools opted to make the scheme permanent.

The authority is funding a second phase of the scheme from its own budgets.

Initial discussions for new School Streets are taking place with the following schools:

• St Mary and St John CofE Primary School, Oxford

• Tyndale Community School, Oxford

• Sandhills Community Primary School, Oxford

• Hill View Primary School, Banbury

• Oxford High School, Oxford

• Dragon School, Oxford

• Wychwood School, Oxford