Hackney: Signs on one London street repeatedly vandalised

The sign on Fairholt Road after attacks earlier in the year and in December 2023

Road signs along a single east London street have been vandalised 13 times in the space of 12 months, costing the council £12,000 in repairs.

The Freedom of Information request was made to Hackney Council about the signs outside Sir Thomas Abney Primary School, Stamford Hill.

The eight School Street signs had to be cleaned or replaced between September 2022 and September 2023.

A School Street is where traffic is restricted during the school run.

Sarah Young, who represents the Woodberry Down ward on Hackney Council, said it was a "committed campaign" of vandalism.

"We have been extremely frustrated by this as ward councillors.

"The School Streets policy is aimed at making our streets safer and greener for our children so that they can enjoy getting to school in the mornings and can cycle, scoot, run, walk or wheel their way without worry."

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"The fact that some people have chosen to run a campaign of vandalism to undermine safer streets for children on their way to and from school is, frankly, pretty appalling."

Hackney's transport lead Mete Coban added: "It's a smack in the face to our residents.

"We need to be very clear: this is criminal activity.

"The council is doing everything it can.

"There is nothing more the council can continue to do, we're spending a lot of money fixing cameras that shouldn't be vandalised in the first place."

What is a School Street?

Road signs are placed along a short section of road outside a school to make the roads safer, reduce local pollution and encourage walking or cycling to school.

The UK's first School Street was installed in Scotland in 2015.

There are now over 500 School Streets across London.

A typical School Street is closed for around 400 hours a year in total.

Compliance isn't universal as some vehicles, such as school minibuses and Blue Badge holders, are exempt.

The FOI request also showed the cameras used to enforce the School Street policy had been vandalised 14 times since April 2021.

It also revealed that Hackney Council has spent over £250,000 fixing vandalised cameras across the borough in the 18 months to September 2023.

Mr Coban said the vandalism had been reported to the police.

Jemima Hartshorn, founder of Mums For Lungs

Jemima Hartshorn is the founder of Mums For Lungs, a grassroots organisation campaigning for cleaner air in cities in the UK since 2017.

She said: "We know that emissions from cars are really harmful to little lungs.

"Prioritising children's health outside their school for about 390 hours a year, should be something we all agree on."

The schemes are broadly popular, especially with parents and schoolchildren.

"It's a dangerous road for children to cross" says Raquel, a parent waiting outside Sir Thomas Abney Primary School.

Even with the closures in the morning and afternoon traffic is still a problem she says. "The cars are very fast here."

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"It's only an hour in the morning and the afternoon" says Louise, standing nearby. "Plus you can just go one road down to go round it, so there's no excuse to keep vandalising it."

During 2021-22 a total of 939 fines were issued to drivers entering the street during enforcement hours.

That number has fallen to 233 so far this financial year.

Vandalism and violence have often followed changes to drivers' privileges.

Signs in Wales were vandalised when speed limits where changed from 30mph to 20mph and First Minister Mark Drakeford received death threats.

There are eight signs in total marking the School Street - all of them are usually attacked at once

The same happened to Jon Burke, who was transport lead for Hackney Council in 2020 when the majority of School Streets were implemented.

He introduced a number of changes to Hackney's roads to create Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. For this, he received a hand-written note containing threats to kill him unless he would "open all roads now".

"School Streets should be a totally uncontroversial silver bullet for a range of issues that we face" Mr Burke said, when touting their benefits for children's health, clean air and reducing car journeys.

He believed damaging these signs were "acts of political intimidation" dressed up as "legitimate protests".

These attacks, he said have been encouraged by a national government government, that has "embraced full-blown conspiracy theories" about Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.

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