Council transport chief agrees to reinstatement after school children’s visit.
Children from a Milton Keynes school have successfully campaigned to have a street closure for unnecessary traffic reinstated outside their academy.
The seven pupils, from Cold Harbour Primary School, Bletchley, went this week to the Civic Offices for a meeting with Murray Woodburn, Head of Traffic and Transport. They received a ‘firm commitment’ to reinstate the ‘School Street’ closure, which was piloted successfully in 2021-22 but then removed.
Accompanied by headteacher Sarah Kotulecki, teacher Grant Malloch and Vice-Chair of Governors Paul Simmonds, the children gave testimonies about the problem of too many cars outside the school in the morning, including a younger brother being nearly knocked down recently.
“My brother was crossing, and a car didn’t stop,” said Billy. “It scared me. Little children like him can’t always see properly and cars don’t always see them. We need it to be safer.”
Sarah Kotulecki outlined all the school community has done to address the problem, including a listening campaign followed by letters to senior politicians and local powerholders.
“We encourage families to walk, scoot or cycle instead of drive,” she said. “That sparked a bigger shift in how we think about travel as a school. We brought in cycle training, hosted events, and built a whole-school approach to active travel.”
Mr Woodburn, who spoke remotely as he was out of town, complemented the school on ‘doing all you can so far’ and said ‘we must now come in and complete the job’. He also agreed to attend a Bicycle Breakfast at the school in September, to look at enabling additional cycle and scooter parking on the school site.
