School Streets

A School Street is a road outside a school with a temporary restriction on motorised traffic at school drop-off and pick-up times. The restriction applies to school traffic and through traffic. The result is a safer, healthier and pleasant environment for everyone.

School Street schemes offer a proactive solution for school communities to tackle air pollution, poor health and road danger reduction. A School Street scheme will encourage a healthier lifestyle and active travel to school for families and lead to a better environment for everyone.

School Streets Schemes

Following on from a successful one day trial street closure at New Elgin in 2019, the council introduced a pilot School Streets scheme at two primary schools in Moray from Monday 22nd March 2021 for an initial period of 9 months. After the trial had been in place for a period of 9 months, with no formal objections, the scheme was approved to be made permanent by members of the Councils Economic Development and Infrastructure Services Committee meeting held on Tuesday 8^th February 2022. This allowed a remaining 9 months to make the trial change permanent through a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO), which is the legal mechanism used to introduce permanent changes to a road’s layout and how traffic uses it, which has now been completed.The project was funded through Cycling, Walking and Safer Streets grant.

New Elgin and Seafield Primaries have been experiencing ongoing road safety concerns raised by residents, parents and the schools caused by drivers bringing their vehicles too close to the school gate at school drop off and pick up times. Our School Street schemes aim to reduce the number of moving vehicles in the vicinity of a school in order to tackle air pollution, reduce road safety risks and encourage active travel and its associated health & environment benefits.

The scheme is supported by Police Scotland, which has the authority to enforce fines for non-compliance with the closures in place. Residents can apply for a free permit and will be allowed to enter and leave during the restricted times as normal.

The following additional exemptions will apply: