New School Street Imminent

It’s been about eight months since Warwickshire County Council announced its plans for a new School Street in Nuneaton, but now it looks like it may finally become a reality. In its newsletter, Chetwynd Junior School has revealed that Caroline Close is proposed to be the site of the new scheme, expecting to start in May 2026.

This is excellent news for a school and street that is plagued by heavy traffic and bad driving at drop-off and pick-up. In my own experience, I have seen people blocking access to the mini-roundabout; parking on that roundabout, on the zig-zag “keep clear” zone; idling engines; abandoning SUVs with idling engines while parking on the roundabout; parking four wheels on the main pavement, and very commonly, parking two wheels but blocking the opposite pavement; driving while using phones. I’ve dared to challenge people on some of these behaviours at times. If it wasn’t abuse in response, it was a shrug of the shoulders, like they don’t care about actively putting people – children, including their own – at risk of harm.

Given there are plans to extend the school in light of increased housing in the area, this situation would only get worse without intervention.

A primary school seen from the public road. The road joins an area for a mini-roundabout, the centre of which is just out of shot to the right. "School Keep Clear" zig-zags surround the boundary of the road. The footpath is buffered to the road by guard rails. The school's sign can be seen standing high, above the school's green fencing.

Chetwynd Junior School (Not During Peak Hours!)

The new scheme should allow safer space for road cycling, easier walking and wheeling on pavements, less pollution, a reduction in exposure to antisocial and dangerous driving behaviours, and a more pleasant environment for residents too. Forcing drivers to park away from the school gates means active travel is incorporated into journeys. Hopefully some will switch their full journey to active travel, but even if it means just a short walk as part of a longer driven trip, that’s still better than nothing.

Supporting the scheme, there will be a “Park and Stride” option using the Pauls Land car park, about a kilometre to the north of the school. This then offers a short, twelve minute, partly traffic-free walk through green space and residential streets. Particularly for older years, this route could offer children a degree of independence travelling between that car park and school. It’s worth noting though that it is not totally accessible given a chicane barrier at the car park end, often poor path surface condition (cracking and lifting of tarmac), and frequent pavement/crossing obstructions by drivers where the route meets a road (Magyar Crescent).

Originally, there was a plan to provide a second “Park and Stride” car park at the nearby Chetwynd Arms pub, roughly the same distance to the south-east of the school, but it seems this plan may not have come to fruition. There was also talk of a “bicycle bus” supporting children cycling to school, but there is no news on this development as yet. Unfortunately, while I was approached, I’m not in a position to be involved and it needs volunteers to be able to take on that commitment.

While School Streets work to prevent most traffic accessing the road, it isn’t a complete closure. Access is still available for blue badge holders, residents, refuse collection vehicles, emergency services, residents, and others as needed on a case by case basis. Otherwise though, it is proposed that drivers will not be permitted to use the street between the hours of 08:15-09:15 and 14:30-15:45.

Of course, enforcement of the restriction will be vital. Based on a similar scheme in Rugby, there will be no barrier to physically stop motorists entering Caroline Close. Instead, it will be signed “pedestrian and cycle zone” with the usual “no motor vehicles” roundel and times and exceptions posted. There will need to be monitoring to ensure that those who violate the restriction receive the appropriate penalty, but how this will be done and whether enforcement will be regular on ongoing is not clear. Restriction Sign in Rugby (Google Street View)

While I am pleased to see that this scheme may finally be getting off the ground, I am disappointed it has taken so long to get this far. When the project was announced last year, I was hoping to see the scheme in place for the Autumn term in September, which obviously didn’t happen. And as the months rolled by, my assumption was that it had been scrapped under the new Reform administration which is not receptive to active travel. Given the current political realities, that this does appear to be going ahead is positive news and provides some hope that small improvements here and there can still be forthcoming.

This School Street isn’t the end of the story though. Another nearby street and school – Magyar Crescent and Whitestone Infant School, which is also set to expand – also suffers from too many vehicles, too many drivers parking on pavements, leaving engines idling, blocking zig-zag marked areas, obstructing private driveways etc. There is a real danger that in providing the Caroline Close scheme there will be a worsening knock-on effect on Magyar Crescent. This will need detailed monitoring and its own measures in mitigation, and it will be important not to use any worsening impact here as a justification to cancel the Caroline Close scheme at the end of what will be a trial period.