Frome Town Council is working with Somerset County Council and Sustrans on the Frome School Streets project. The team has been engaging with the community to find a workable solution to safer streets around our schools.
What is a ‘School Street’?
A School Street is an area that limits vehicle access during school pickup and drop-off making it safer for people to walk, cycle or scoot to school. All residents who live in the School Streets area will still be able to access their street without restriction as will buses and people with disabilities. All families heading to school will, for the most part, be asked to either walk, cycle, scoot or where not possible, to park and stride for 5 minutes.
The solutions will help reduce air pollution, and create child friendly streets.
Where will the School Streets be?
We have 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?
There are three stages to implementing the trial:
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.
Stage 3 – Decision Decide, with the community, whether the School Street zone should be a permanent fixture.
It is key that residents engage with the plans and share their local knowledge and feedback to deliver safer streets for our whole community.
What stage are we at?
We are fast approaching Stage 2. Frome Town Council, Sustrans and Somerset County Council have made the final changes to the draft design of the scheme based on the feedback received.
These designs were taken to the Frome Town Council meeting on 7 December and approved.
Note these designs are subject to a Road Safety Audit and technical approval from Somerset County Council as the Highways Authority and therefore may change further.
View & Discuss
There will be three meetings to hear more about the initiative, why it is needed, look at the designs and discuss how we can work together to make the trial a success:
Wednesday 1st February, 2pm-3pm – Trinity First School
The trial of the scheme will be implemented through an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO), meaning the changes will be legally enforceable for the 18 month period and the impacts will be monitored and evaluated.
Frome Town Council will be working closely with the schools in the next few months to explore how parents and pupils can be supported to travel more actively where possible throughout the trial period and beyond.
View and download the draft designs along with an overview map of the school streets area, Council papers and FAQs about the plan:
How we reached this point
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.
The draft design and consultation responses are still available to view via Commonplace although the consultation is now closed.
Past sessions
Autumn 2021
Between September and November 2021 seven co-design events were held in various locations and online providing an opportunity for members of the public to share their thoughts and participate in co-designing the Frome School Streets scheme.
Spring 2022
Between 4th April and 4th May the draft was available to review and comment on online and in person at Frome Town Hall. Drop-in sessions were also held at the Town Hall on 7th and 20th April and at the crossroads of Nunney Road and Oakfield Road on the 5th, 26th and 27th April.
Keep up to date
We have two mailing lists that you can sign up to to keep up to date with the School Streets project and Active Travel activities in Frome:
Contact Us
If you have any questions about School Streets that aren’t answered on this page, please email us.
