Volunteers and campaigners have backed plans to close roads around Greater Manchester to keep kids safe on the school run.

School Streets is a scheme supported by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), which sees busy roads closed to cars at drop off and pick up times, making the journey to school safer and greener.

Andy Burnham has shared plans to create 100 School Streets around the region by 2028, and parents involved say it's helping to transform their communities.

St Thomas' CE Primary School in Stockport is one school that decided to take part independent of TfGM, after gaining funding from Stockport council.

On Friday, May 17, it celebrated one year of having the road closures in place, made possible by parents and local residents giving up their time to make it work.

On the day, around 180 children, staff and parents cycled to school together, with only a few cars passing by.

Rhian Greaves volunteering outside St Thomas\' CE Primary School on Buckingham Road in Stockport, Greater Manchester. (Image - Declan Carey LDRS)

Rhian Greaves and Paul Hunt are two parents in St Thomas' school community who help out, by donning high-viz jackets and standing on Buckingham Road outside the school gates to control the traffic.

Mr Hunt said he was "one of those parents who would drive on the school run out of habit", but now he regularly walks instead.

The road "used to be chaos in the mornings", Ms Greaves added, but she said "it's so much nicer now."

And despite "a couple of initial concerns" from neighbours, the school's headteacher Louise Lyons said the scheme is helping children to arrive "bouncing and ready to learn" at the start of the day.

Residents, businesses, and blue badge holders along the road are still able to use the street during drop off and pick up times, with special passes allowing them access through volunteer-manned traffic cones.

Some parents are also given access to the road depending on the needs of their children.

But despite the success at the school, Matt Evans, a parent who got the scheme up and running at St Thomas', said it's now "running on fumes."

With the school working across two sites, there are 50 volunteer slots to fill each week, which as Mr Evans points out is "not easy when it's minus two degrees and freezing."

He said that while it has "transformed" the community and is having a positive impact on the environment – they need more help to keep it going indefinitely.

Children cycling to St Thomas\' CE Primary School on Buckingham Road in Stockport, Greater Manchester. (Image - Declan Carey LDRS)

He added: "I feel incredibly proud of what we've managed to achieve because the situation outside the school has been truly transformed and made a massive difference to the environment as the kids arrive and leave each day.

"We're really struggling to keep the scheme going though, and without more support from the council or TfGM we'll have to ramp down or stop – as others similar schemes have learnt, volunteer-led models are just not viable for keeping kids safe in the long run."

Richard Nickson, TfGM's active travel network director, highlighted that the transport network has worked with all ten of Greater Manchester's districts to support the trialling of School Streets, and that they are now exploring how to roll it out elsewhere.

He added: "School Streets can play an important role in creating a pleasant, child-friendly environment around schools that reduces traffic and improves the quality of air that children breathe, while also maintaining access for residents, local businesses and blue badge holders.

"We recognise the fantastic work that is taking place at St Thomas' CE Primary School, and we want to commend the parents who have worked hard to deliver a School Street scheme in their own time.

"We understand the desire to continue and develop their scheme, and we are open to further conversations with the school through the local authority.

"The Mayor of Greater Manchester has outlined plans to build on the success of School Streets pilots across the city-region, and TfGM is currently exploring with active travel commissioner Dame Sarah Storey how we can support the ambition of creating 100 School Streets over the coming mayoral term."

School streets are designed to make travelling to school safer for children, by reducing the number of cars - and by extension pollution - on the nearby roads (Image - St Thomas' Primary)

Cllr Grace Baynham, cabinet member for parks, highways and transport services at Stockport council, said the town hall has "worked closely with St Thomas' to support this scheme", and will "work with TfGM to ensure our borough builds on the success of School Streets in Stockport."

But it remains uncertain whether the road closures around St Thomas' will still be in place a year from now.

Sarah Rowe is a member of the Clean Cities Campaign, and said that schemes like at St Thomas' should be given even more support so that it's less reliant on the goodwill of the community.

She said this change will be crucial for making School Streets permanent, and help them to survive in the long run.

She added: "Children are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of both air pollution and road danger, reducing traffic outside of schools is crucial to tackling both issues, and School Streets are an effective way to do this at pick up and drop off time.

"We know that safety concerns are a key barrier for people choosing to walk, wheel or cycle to school, so reducing the number of cars at the school gate enables more people to make the switch to active travel.

"School Streets are also very popular – our recent survey carried out by Ipsos found that 68 percent of people in Greater Manchester agreed that there should be traffic free zones outside of schools in order to reduce road danger.

"We welcome Andy Burnham's recent manifesto commitment to new School Streets across Greater Manchester, and urge local leaders to move quickly to support the hard work of parents at schools like St Thomas' and implement changes to make these School Streets permanent and no longer reliant on volunteers."

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