Environment chief Councillor Adam Harrison

POISONOUS fumes which have choked children for decades must be tackled by limiting traffic access around schools at the start and end of the day, the council’s environment chief said this week as complaints stacked up against a road closure plan in Hampstead.

Car use around Kidderpore Avenue has developed into an election issue in the days running up to next week’s London elections, with Camden preparing to block off drivers there and Kidderpore Gardens and Ferncroft Avenue during school-run hours.

A 12-month trial is due to be put in place around St Luke’s and St Margaret’s schools, but critics are already warning that the closure will only create more traffic.

Labour councillor Adam Harrison, in charge of the environment brief, said the measures “free up space for children and their families to arrive safely, reduce the possibility of collisions, and clean up the air we breathe”, adding: “Encouraging people to walk, scoot, cycle, or take public transport to school helps reduce the school-run impact on NW3 and indeed across Camden.”

The area has a high concentration of schools – the majority of which are a cluster of private fee-paying schools which draw parents in from further afield, often driving their children to school.

The Town Hall has been warned the traffic is just building up elsewhere.

Former Tory councillor Don Williams, the party’s parliamentary candidate in Hampstead and Highgate, said: “Frognal residents have resoundingly rejected Camden’s proposal, saying it is unworkable, increases traffic exponentially and have proposed their own solution.

“Interestingly, Camden has entitled their proposal ‘Healthy Streets’ and say that the changes have been in the interest of schools, their students and residents. However, there will be huge traffic jams in surrounding roads with additional fumes.”

He added: “This is in addition to the traffic that intentionally bypasses the Finchley Road 20mph limit by going onto side roads in Frognal. The proposed changes will also make tradesmen reluctant to make visits, taxis for travel will be unavailable at those times and carers will be impeded.”

Many residents did not know about the changes and had not received any consultation documents from the council, he added. Even the Green Party’s candidate in the next week’s by-election in Frognal, Charles Harris, said he was not behind the traffic-reducing plan.

He said: “We need to look at it with a holistic view. These street closures cannot be cherry-picked. It just passes the problems on to other nearby streets. We need to deal with the school-run traffic, which is dreadful, but this is just shifting the issue elsewhere.”

Cllr Harrison said more than 2,000 flyers had been hand-delivered to homes on the streets, notices put on lampposts across the area and emails sent to schools and residents’ associations.

He said: “The proposal for St Luke’s and St Margaret’s is for a trial – which would enable us to monitor the traffic on the restricted streets and surrounding streets and make any changes needed during the experimental period, or at the end of the 12-month of trial.”

He added: “Hampstead residents have long told me of the terrible blight of the school-run in their area, where there is a high concentration of schools.  And they are right to be concerned and demand action.”

Voters goes to polls next Thursday to decide on who should be the Mayor of London for the next four years.

They will also choose the make-up of the London Assembly and in Frognal there is a council ward by-election, following the resignation of Conservative councillor Gio Spinella.

Steve Adams is standing for the Tories, Sarah Hoyle is the Lib Dem candidate, Simon Lickert for Labour and Mr Harris is on the ballot paper for the Greens. Photo ID is needed to vote at polling stations.