Among last month’s CIHT Awards, celebrating the outstanding achievements and contributions made by professionals in the highways and transportation sector over the preceding year, there was one award focusing squarely on sustainability. 

The Sustainability Award, sponsored by Winvic, was to recognise, “projects, schemes, products or strategies delivered by the transport industry that can demonstrate a contribution to sustainable development,” and 2025’s recipient was the Lambeth School Street programme, run by Lambeth Council in South London.

The scheme has introduced timed closures of streets for vehicles to promote walking, cycling and scooting to school, thereby reducing road danger at the school gates and tackling congestion.

What impressed judges, the winning announcement stated, was the programme’s ability, “To overcome many challenges and still deliver great results as initially planned. While School Streets initiatives are becoming more popular, this project took it to the next stage with wider sustainability goals.”

‘Nicer, calmer environments’ outside schools

The person leading this ongoing project is Samuel Dillon, who explains the plan: “Rezina Chowdhury is our cabinet member [for Sustainable Lambeth and Clean Air], and [in 2022] she put forward a pretty ambitious plan to see every primary school in the borough that could feasibly accommodate one should receive a School Street by this administration.

“So, we're on track to deliver that in November this year, which would mean that 90 percent of our primary schools will have a School Street by the end of this year – the remaining 10 percent are on main roads [so are not eligible]. We're now also looking at other road danger reduction policies to put in place near those schools too.”

Dillon explains that although the most visible effect may be in terms of road danger reduction, there is a clear sustainability benefit too.

“If we reduce the volume and speed of vehicles, we know we're going to reduce road danger, and that has added benefits like improved air quality and lower congestion,” he says. “We also see a nicer, calmer environment outside the school gate, with parents talking to each other, having conversations, creating better relations among children and parents.

“We've heard reports from schools about how the school community is growing, because we’re giving parents and children a few minutes more every day to interact in a nicer environment.

“There are obvious health benefits too, as children and parents are walking for five, 10 minutes extra than before.”
 
Cllr Rezina Chowdhury adds: “I am delighted that Lambeth’s School Streets programme has been recognised by CIHT and congratulate Sam and the rest of the team on a well-deserved award.

“I set the team some really bold targets to deliver school streets at 90% of our [primary] schools, because we know that we need to act as fast as possible to tackle the climate emergency, improve air quality and create safer, healthier neighbourhoods across the borough. School Streets are a crucial part of that, as children are particularly vulnerable to both poor air quality and road danger on congested streets. 

“We’re proud to be one of the leading local authorities in the country on this; around 10% of all Schools Streets in London are in Lambeth, despite us representing just 3% of the population. That’s a testament to the speed and imagination of our team, and as schemes like Kennington Oval in the north of the borough show there is so much more we can do with public space when we focus on people, not just cars."

Read more from CIHT: Spotlight Walk to School & School Streets.

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