New Line Learning is committed to safe and environmentally friendly travel to and from its schools. In a bid to reduce traffic and promote greener routes to schools, we have employed expert travel consultants to produce a travel plan for the proposed new schools on the current Oldborough Manor site.
A strong emphasis will be placed on the provision of safe, well-lit pedestrian access to the schools. The existing access would be improved by enhancing accessibility at both the north and south ends of the site and creating a new central route through the site providing access to all facilities and buildings.
Our transport consultants have completed numerous traffic surveys to establish how children and staff currently travel to and from Senacre and Oldborough Manor schools, and also how this may be affected by the new building proposals.
Of those surveyed, student's methods of travel to and from school were as follows:
The majority of students at both schools already walk to and from school. This would be further encouraged under the new proposals by providing safe, well lit and accessible pedestrian routes to the north and south side of the site.
As 79.5% of students at both schools live within acceptable walking distances to the Oldborough site (as set out in The Institution of Highways & Transportation guidelines) it is anticipated that the improvements made to pedestrian routes will result in an increased number of students walking to school.
When asked what would encourage more children to cycle to school, 42.0% of pupils from Oldborough and 22.6% of pupil from Senacre school confirmed that the provision of improved cycle parking would encourage them to cycle to and from school.
To encourage more cycling to school, a number of new bike sheds would be provided on the site that will serve both schools. This would provide a safe and secure place for pupils to store their bikes during school hours.
Using postcode data, it was concluded that the relocation of Senacre School would result in a slighter greater distance to be travelled by current Senacre students. However, with the relocation, Senacre pupils would be travelling an average of 1.88km to school, a very similar distance to the average journey of Oldborough Manor school pupils who currently travel 1.90km to school.
In addition to the above, our transport consultants have completed traffic studies to determine how vehicular access to the area can be improved. This includes exploring a staff car-sharing scheme and a pupil lift-sharing scheme supported by an intranet register.
The proposals also include a central drop-off point to ensure that traffic flow is smooth but that cars are kept a safe distance away from the schools' entrance.