Brent’s political leaders have backed their school streets initiative by sharing a study that shows parents find the school run three times as stressful as work.
YouGov polling commissioned by Clean Cities Campaign shows parents of children 18 and under are triple as likely to find the school run stressful as meeting their line manager at work - with 22 per cent saying yes compared to 7pc.
Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt, of the ruling Labour group, has pushed for the introduction of the school streets. These are schemes which stop vehicles parking outside schools during pick up and drop off hours.
To promote the campaign, Councillor Butt visited Oakington Manor Primary School to meet with parents and children alongside Councillor Krupesh Hirani - London Assembly member for Brent and Harrow.
The meeting coincided with the launch in London of a Europe-wide campaign to urge city leaders to create thousands of new school streets across the continent, with a focus on newly elected councillors.
Will Norman, the Mayor of London’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner, said: "I think the election results show that once again that clean air policies, active travel policies, policies that make the city more liveable, a nicer place to be – designing our streets for people rather than necessarily for cars are a vote winner, we've seen this time and time again.
“School streets are a brilliant approach to cleaning up the air around schools making it safe on the road so kids can walk, cycle or scoot rather than take the car."
The YouGov data also showed nearly six in ten (59pc) of all parents/guardians say that walking or cycling is the best way to spend quality time with their children, while only one in ten (11pc) said driving.
In the wider campaign, 170 events were held in 40 cities and 10 countries from Slovakia to Spain, with 'School Jam' pop up café visiting primary schools in London.
Mr Norman added: “Currently the school run accounts for a quarter of morning traffic in London, and this is why school streets - which encourage walking, cycling and scooting - play such a vital role in driving down congestion, air pollution and road danger.”
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