Traffic cameras set to be installed outside six schools in Merseyside

Approval is needed from the government to allow for the cameras to be installed
-Credit: (Image: Pete Stonier / Stoke Sentinel)


Traffic cameras are set to be put up outside six schools to help enforce schemes designed to make the roads around them safer. There are currently only six Wirral School Streets schemes in place but 53 schools have asked if they can join.

A school street is a stretch of road that limits traffic during school drop off and pick up times and create a car free zone outside the school gates. Wirral Council which oversees the schemes said this creates “a happier and healthier environment for everyone around the school.”

Schemes are trialled over 18 months to see if they’re effective but six schools have now been made permanent under the scheme. Cameras are now to be installed outside each one to help with enforcement if a policy is approved by councillors on December 3.

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In Wallasey, Greenleas Primary School, Liscard Primary, St Albans Primary, and St Georges Primary in Wallasey. In Bromborough, Raeburn Primary School will also have cameras installed as will Christ Church CE Primary in Birkenhead.

The funding for this will come from £100,000 from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to create safer routes to school while funding for council officers needed to support the scheme will also come from £213,260 of Combined Authority money. The total budget for school streets is £400,000.

The local authority has also received 53 requests to join the school streets scheme which could see significant expansion of the project. However Wirral Council does not believe every one would be suitable and other ways to tackle safety issues outside schools might be better.

It has drawn up a policy of how it will look at each school with three more to be set up next year, alternatives to the scheme, as well as options for enforcement. While most drivers have worked with the schemes, Wirral Council said research showed “some drivers will resist compliance due to habit, inconvenience or opposition to change.”

Options for enforcement will include physical barriers, police enforcement, as well as automatic number plate recognition cameras (ANPR). The cameras are initially being trialled at Greenleas Primary School followed by Raeburn Primary where the scheme reportedly needs more support.

The council then aims to potentially roll out the cameras to the four other schools once it can measure how effective they’ve been. Approval is needed from the government to allow for the cameras to be installed.