Frome Town Council will tonight (December 7) be looking at the Frome School Streets project. The team has been engaging with the community to find a workable solution to safer streets around our schools.

They say 'School Streets' enable safer and less congested roads by prioritising walking and cycling while limiting vehicular through-traffic. The aim is to design streets that encourage more families to actively travel to school, while maintaining access for anyone who lives and works in the area. The solutions will help reduce air pollution, enable social distancing and create child friendly streets.

School Streets Consultation

In September and October 2021 Frome Town Council and Sustrans ran a series of seven community co-design events to inform the design of a School Streets scheme around Trinity, Critchill, Oakfield and Avanti schools and Bright Stars Nursery.

Frome Town Council ran a public consultation on the draft School Streets design from 4th April – 4th May 2022. This included an online survey via Commonplace, two drop-in sessions at Frome Town Hall and several outdoor sessions outside the schools throughout the month.

Where will the School Streets be?

Frome Town council has identified Oakfield Road, Somerset Road and the top of Nunney Road as a potential School Street zone because it links 5 schools with over 1500 pupils – Oakfield Academy, Trinity First School and Critchill School, with the Avanti Park School and Bright Stars nursery nearby, to Victoria Park and runs along the NCN24 cycle route.

How will it happen?

Frome Town Council has been putting the project through in three stages :

Stage 1 – Co-Design A series of events to co-design the changes before we trial them- this stage is now complete.

Stage 2 – Implementation The design will be trialled in Spring 2023 for 18 months, during that time we will collect feedback from schools, local residents, businesses and the wider community.