A proposal to make three traffic schemes covering four Havering schools permanent has been given a green light, despite concerns about their impact on neighbouring roads.

Usage of roads included in school streets schemes is restricted at drop-off and pick-up times, with the aim of improving road safety and air quality where children gather.

The restrictions were initially introduced last year on an experimental basis to specified streets around Branfil Primary School, Hylands Primary School and Squirrels Heath Infant and Junior schools.

On Tuesday, January 11, Havering’s highways advisory committee voted to make these schemes permanent ahead of the experimental period’s end in March.

Last month, on December 14, the committee recommended eight new experimental schemes for approval.

Officers had recommended that the original schemes be made permanent at the same meeting, but the decision was deferred due to concerns that responses from as far away as Newham had been included in the consultation.

Tuesday’s vote in favour of making the three schemes permanent came despite concerns about the impact of the Hylands Primary School scheme on neighbouring roads.

Alex Wade, a resident of Globe Road, from which pupils can easily access Hylands Primary School, said school streets had displaced traffic problems on Benjamins Close, which is included in the scheme, to Globe Road.

"The great reduction of inconvenience to residents in Benjamin Close has been offset by an equal and opposite increase in congestion and inconvenience in the much busier Globe Road,” he said.

Cllr Judith Holt, representing Romford Town where the Hylands scheme lies, agreed that work needed to be done to support residents in the surrounding roads.

She said: “There are still quite a number of concerns about the effects of [school streets] on Globe Road and the other neighbouring roads in terms of traffic movement, safety and engagement by the council officers with the residents."

She asked for the situation around Hylands be “closely monitored” in terms of enforcement and that officers continued to engage with residents and ward councillors.

Cllr Holt also suggested the situation be reviewed in six months, with a view to investigating a scheme to alleviate traffic problems in Globe Road.