East Sheen's West Temple Sheen school street becomes permanent on 3 September. Cameras enforce 8.15 to 9.15am and 3 to 4.45pm in term time, and a PCN is £160.
The camera-enforced school street outside Sheen Mount Primary School in East Sheen stops being a trial this week. Richmond Council made a permanent traffic order on 26 August 2026, and it comes into force on 3 September.
The order also keeps the Stanley Road school street in Twickenham, outside St James Catholic Primary School, in place for good.
Both were advertised in the council’s statutory notices on 27 August, under reference 25/017. The wording matters: the same reference was previously attached to an Experimental Order, made under the trial powers in the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. The new one drops that word. It is The London of Richmond upon Thames (Prescribed Route) (School Streets) (No. 1) Order 2026, made under section 6 of the same Act, which is the power councils use for permanent restrictions.
The afternoon window is the one that catches people
West Temple Sheen’s afternoon window closes at 4.45pm. That is later than any other school street on the council’s own timetable for this academic year.
| West Temple Sheen (Sheen Mount) | Stanley Road (St James) | |
|---|---|---|
| Morning | 8.15 to 9.15am | 8 to 9am |
| Afternoon | 3 to 4.45pm | 2 to 4pm |
| Days | Monday to Friday, term time | Monday to Friday, term time |
| First enforced this term | 7 September | 4 September |
| Extent | Christchurch Road to Temple Sheen Road | Junction with South Road, and the southern arm |
Those first-enforcement dates come from the council’s School Street operational hours and dates for 2026/27, and they are not the same as the date the order starts. The order is live from 3 September, but the cameras on West Temple Sheen do not begin issuing for the autumn term until Monday 7 September, which is the day Sheen Mount’s term actually starts after two inset days on 3 and 4 September. St James starts a working day earlier, on 4 September.
The 4.45pm finish is recent. The trial launched on Monday 3 March 2025 with shorter hours. Six months of feedback, the council says, “strongly suggested the school street would benefit from longer operating hours”, and the Transport and Air Quality Committee approved the change on 2 February 2026. The amended hours came into force on 23 February 2026, and the six-month window for objecting to them closed on 19 August. The permanent order followed a week later.
What it means for you
If you drive on West Temple Sheen or Stanley Road, three things are worth knowing before term settles down.
A parking permit does not get you in. This is the single most common misunderstanding about Richmond’s school streets, and the council spells it out on its own exemptions page: a controlled parking zone permit, a traffic reduction scheme permit or a blue badge will let you park, but none of them lets you enter the school street during operating hours. You need a separate school street exemption, applied for and granted.
Parents dropping off cannot apply. Nor can residents or businesses outside the restricted length, nor drivers cutting through. Who can apply:
- residents and businesses inside the school street, up to four household-owned vehicles per address
- blue badge holders visiting a property inside it
- care, health and medical workers serving a property inside it
- private hire taxis serving a property inside it
Emergency vehicles, council waste trucks, school buses and Hackney carriages are exempt automatically.
A penalty is £160. The council’s PCN costs page puts school street contraventions in the same band as bus lanes: £160, halved to £80 if you pay within 14 days.
There is a route out for genuine one-offs. Emergency call-outs, heavy or emergency deliveries and building work can be applied for as exceptional circumstances, but the application should go in at least 48 hours ahead. If a vehicle has already gone through, the council asks you to email its school streets team before 5pm on the day of entry to avoid a PCN.
The signs stay up in the holidays
One detail worth carrying: the council does not remove or cover school street signs during half terms and holidays, because it is not required to. So a sign in October half term is not evidence the restriction is running. What decides it is the timetable, and by the council’s own note, school streets stay live on mid-term inset days unless the school asks for a suspension, and are suspended on public holidays.
For West Temple Sheen, the autumn term windows close on 23 October, restart on 3 November and end for the year on 18 December.
Where this sits in the borough
Richmond now runs 21 school streets serving 30 schools, nurseries and children’s centres, according to the council’s school streets locations page. That page, last updated on 14 August, still lists Sheen Mount among the schemes “being trialled under an Experimental Traffic Order”. The statutory notice published 13 days later says otherwise, and the notice is the legal document.
Three schemes are still trials once Sheen Mount leaves that group: Collis Primary in Hampton Wick, Barnes Primary, and Broomfield House on Princes Road in Kew.
Anyone wanting to challenge the new order has six weeks from 26 August to apply to the High Court, on the ground that it falls outside the council’s powers under the 1984 Act or that a procedural requirement was not met. That window closes on 7 October 2026.
Separately, and in the same batch of notices, the council is proposing to extend the WR controlled parking zone into Chase Gardens, Twickenham, operating 8.30am to 6.30pm Mondays to Saturdays. Objections and support must reach the council by 25 September, quoting reference 26/158.
Every dated closure and restriction in the borough is on our Richmond roadworks and travel page, and the practical details of parking here are in parking in Richmond.
Sources
- The London of Richmond upon Thames (Prescribed Route) (School Streets) (No. 1) Order 2026, reference 25/017, made 26 August 2026 and advertised on the Public Notice Portal on 27 August 2026, for the order date, the streets, the hours, the extents and the High Court challenge period.
- Notice of Modification to an Experimental Order, West Temple Sheen, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, dated 19 February 2026, for the earlier experimental order and the six-month objection window.
- Sheen Mount Primary School Street, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, for the 3 March 2025 trial launch, the ANPR enforcement and the trial feedback.
- Transport and Air Quality Committee decision of 2 February 2026 for the approval of the amended Sheen Mount hours and of making the St James school street permanent.
- School Street operational hours and dates for the 2026/27 academic year for enforcement times, first and last enforcement dates, and the notes on signs, inset days and public holidays.
- School Streets exemptions for who can and cannot apply, and the exceptional circumstances route.
- Penalty Charge Notice costs for the £160 school street penalty and the 14-day discount.
- School Streets locations for the 21 schemes and 30 institutions, and for which schemes remain trials.
- Term and key dates, Sheen Mount Primary School for the 3 and 4 September inset days and the 7 September term start.
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