Councillors decide on Monday whether to consult on school streets at eight more schools, in Kew, Barnes, Teddington, Hampton and Twickenham. The full list.

Eight more Richmond schools have been named as possible school streets, and councillors decide on Monday whether to start consulting residents about them.

The list is in a report going to the council’s Transport and Air Quality Committee on Monday 7 September, which meets at 7pm at York House and is webcast. Officers are asking the committee to approve phase 7 of the school streets programme, subject to public consultation, and to hand the Executive Director of Place and Growth the power to sign off final designs after talking to the committee chair and ward councillors.

Nothing changes on any street yet. Approval on Monday starts a pre-trial consultation, not a restriction.

The eight schools, and the streets involved

The names and the streets come from Appendix 1 of the committee report:

  • Kew Riverside Primary, on Courtlands Avenue, Kew
  • The King’s CE Primary, on Cumberland Road, Kew
  • The Lady Eleanor Holles School, on Grenville Mews, Hampton North
  • St James’s, on Wellesley Crescent, Preston Close and Shaftesbury Way, South Twickenham
  • Lowther, on Stillingfleet Road, Barnes
  • St Mary’s CE Primary infant and middle sites, and Capella House, on Amyand Park Road, Twickenham Riverside
  • St Elizabeth’s Catholic Primary and Christ’s Secondary, on Lower Grove Road, Richmond
  • St Mary’s and St Peter’s CE Primary, on Somerset Road, Teddington

Officers are explicit that the list will change. The report says some of these schools may never reach a scheme, and that other schools not named here may come forward.

What prompted each one

The report sets out why each street is being looked at, and the reasons are not interchangeable.

At Kew Riverside Primary, a ward councillor raised a resident’s complaint that school-related parking is congesting a small cul de sac, causing safety concerns for pupils and access problems for the people who live there.

At The King’s CE Primary on Cumberland Road, the school itself has asked repeatedly about parents and carers obstructing the raised carriageway table and residents’ driveways. The council will not move first here. Officers say they will review monitoring data from the Kew Green traffic reduction scheme, and the step-free access plans for Kew Gardens station via High Park Road, before deciding.

At The Lady Eleanor Holles School, the trigger was a petition from residents of Grenville Mews. The council has already put up signs saying school-related parking is not allowed there. The report’s verdict on those signs is blunt: they have been ineffective. Cars are still parked on footways and grass verges.

St James’s is an extension rather than a new scheme. The school street at the southern entrance on Stanley Road is already permanent, and officers suggest matching its hours if the extension goes ahead: Monday to Friday, 8 to 9am and 2 to 4pm, term time only.

Lowther in Barnes is the most ambitious of the eight. Officers want to trial a full road closure on Stillingfleet Road, which has no vehicular access and little on-street parking, with emergency access retained. The report frames it as a co-design opportunity with the school and residents to make a public realm space outside the school gates.

St Mary’s CE Primary and Capella House on Amyand Park Road is the hardest. Officers list narrow footways, rat running and congestion caused by parents and carers, then note that the obvious fixes create their own problems, including large-scale loss of parking and an impact on visitors to the nearby health centres. A feasibility study comes first.

St Elizabeth’s and Christ’s could get a one-way school street on Lower Grove Road, where the school has raised safety and congestion at its rear entrance. That one is also at feasibility stage.

A pupil’s petition put Teddington on the list

The Teddington entry stands out. The report says officers are looking at Somerset Road because of a petition from a pupil at St Mary’s and St Peter’s CE Primary.

The petition asked for formal crossing points on Somerset Road, raised speed as a concern, and asked for a school crossing patrol at the Somerset Road entrance. Officers say crossing points are difficult to provide on that road because of mature trees and driveways. They are now considering a range of options, which may include safety measures on Church Road as well as a school street.

One of these was consulted on in January and shelved

The St Mary’s CE extension at Twickenham Riverside is not new. It was one of three schemes put out for a phase 6 pre-trial consultation in January 2026, alongside an Orleans Primary extension and Nelson Primary in Whitton. The council’s own page on school streets locations still records the outcome: those results were shared with ward councillors and residents, and the schemes “are not currently being progressed”.

Phase 7 brings the St Mary’s proposal back, this time with Capella House included. Orleans and Nelson are not on the phase 7 list.

Where the programme stands

Richmond has 21 school streets in operation, serving 30 schools, nurseries and children’s centres. Of the schemes introduced so far, 18 have been made permanent, one was removed, and three are still running as trials. Fifteen have had enhanced entry treatments.

Bar chart of Richmond's school streets programme: 18 permanent, 3 in trial, 1 removed, 8 proposed for phase 7 and 3 phase 6 schemes not being progressed
Counts from the phase 7 committee report and the council's school streets locations page.

One caveat on that count. The report lists Sheen Mount among the three trials, alongside Barnes Primary and Broomfield House. The council made a permanent order for the West Temple Sheen school street on 26 August, and it came into force on 3 September, after the report was written.

The money is not new either. The report says £1.188m of capital has been allocated to school streets since the programme began, of which £0.44m is left, and that phase 7 can be paid for from the existing approved capital programme.

What it means for you

If you live on one of the eight streets, expect to be asked, at length, before anything is installed:

  • a letter drop to local residents, and an email to the school for its newsletter
  • an evening drop-in session at the school
  • an afternoon pop-up at the school gates
  • door knocking, so the council can answer questions in person
  • automatic traffic counts on the street and surrounding roads, plus a hands-up travel survey at the school, to set a baseline

Ward councillors then see the responses and give a steer on whether to go ahead. If a trial is approved, it goes in under an experimental traffic order, which carries its own formal six-month consultation while the scheme is actually running. The council has to decide within 18 months of a trial starting whether to keep, remove or amend it.

Hours are not fixed by the council alone. For most of the eight, the report says the school or the residents will propose the operating hours, and those hours form part of the pre-trial consultation.

On enforcement, Richmond uses three methods: signage only, school or resident volunteers with barriers, and ANPR cameras. Trials generally start with signage only, unless there is reason to think signs will not work. The cameras are shared between schemes, and go to the ones with the most contraventions and traffic. Where cameras are used, residents, businesses, school staff and other eligible drivers go on an exemption list run by the parking team. School streets are enforced during term time only.

Blue Badge holders who need to reach a property inside a school street can apply for an exemption. If a scheme near you reaches the camera stage, the exemptions page is the one to read before term starts, and a contravention is charged at the council’s standard penalty charge rates.

You can watch Monday’s meeting on the council webcast, or read the full reports pack before it.

For everything else moving on the borough’s roads this month, see our Richmond roadworks and travel page, and for what is in front of the planning committee, Richmond planning news.

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