PRESS RELEASE: SEVENOAKS TOWN 20MPH SIGNS INSTALLED IN PREPARATION FOR START OF NEW SCHOOL YEAR
Published: 03 September 2024
As of 30th August 2024, installation of 20mph signs for the new Sevenoaks Town 20mph speed limit has now been completed, with larger gateway signs having been installed at all entrances and exits of the scheme and smaller repeater signs distributed throughout. This comes in time for the commencement of the new school year, encouraging safer roads for school children and including the following schools within the scheme, as well as various vulnerable locations including the Adult Education Centre, multiple care homes, “Hole in the Wall” access to Knole Park and the Hospital:
- Lady Boswell’s Primary School
- Trinity School
- Weald of Kent Grammar School and Tunbridge Wells Boys Grammar School
- St Thomas Primary School and Pre School
- Sevenoaks Primary School and Pre School and Acorns Nursery
- Walthamstow Hall Junior School and Secondary School
- Oakley Nursery and Pre School
- The Children’s Workshop
This also includes:
- The upper High Street close to Sevenoaks School
- St Johns Primary and Granville School which were in the initial 20mph zones
- The approaches to Knole Academy through Bradbourne Lakes Area
More works on coloured tarmac and painted speed roundels on the highway will be completed on the following dates, with no planned day-time road closures associated with their installation.- Painted roundels (not requiring road closures) between Monday 9th September and Friday 13th September, and further works between Monday 30th September and Friday 3rd October
- Any necessary road repairs, along with coloured tarmac and painted roundels (requiring road closure, to be completed at night) on the following roads – with one road closed at a time:
- Seal Hollow Road – 26th and 27th September at night, one for surfacing and one for lining
- Hillingdon Avenue – 26th and 27th September at night, one for surfacing and one for lining
- Betenson Avenue – 26th and 27th September at night, one for surfacing and one for lining
- Lambarde Road – 26th and 27th September at night, one for surfacing and one for lining
For more information please consult the following links:
Cllr Tony Clayton, Chair of the Town Council’s Finance & Delivery Committee said:
“The Town Council has responded to five petitions, from residents’ associations and schools, asking for speed reductions to improve safety for students walking to school, for pedestrians in the town centre, and walkers heading to Knole Park. Five schools have seen improvements with the introduction of 20 limit areas - St Johns’, Walthamstow Hall senior and junior, Sevenoaks Primary and Granville Schools.
Petitions focused on the remaining seven schools in the town, from Sevenoaks School to Trinity and Knole Academy, taking in Lady Boswells and St Thomas’, plus Seal Primary. The Town Council is now acting on results of its consultation last year.
The results confirm:
- strong support for the policy adopted in the Sevenoaks Town Neighbourhood Plan for 20 mph limits near schools and some residential areas
- majority support for the specific plan approved for consultation by the JTB - and a significantly larger majority for Sevenoaks Town taxpayers
- majority support for every street included in the plan, after taking account of the specific question in the survey asking about roads to be left out.
Kent County Council has approved the scheme covering most of the schools but leaving out four roads.
This is a major step forward for road safety in Sevenoaks. We believe it will help to reduce the tragic toll of 36 crash injuries a year in the town over the last ten years. The number of school students on Sevenoaks streets each day is 8,000 and rising, and there is an urgent need for more of them to be able to walk or cycle safely to school. By backing this scheme, we expect to reduce congestion and pollution in the town.
More important, we will help Kent County Council’s aim to cut serious accidents, and more walking and cycling safer for all. We will be monitoring its impact, and asking schools to promote the new limits to parents and students."