UK could ban cars near schools

A shock proposal from the UK’s top public health official could turn the school run into something far more literal.

The Government body, Public Health England, wants cars banned from near schools at all times of the school day, along with higher and more frequent congestion charges on motorists.

The moves aren’t for accident prevention, according to Public Health England’s new report, but to improve air quality around schools in an attempt to make its kids healthier.

Public Health England’s medical director, Paul Cosford, said the organization wanted to create a “pollution-free generation”.

“We know that most of the exposure of children to air pollution is from traffic,” Cosford said.

“By restricting driving access to the immediate local environment, we could create an environment where it’s easier for children to walk or cycle to school than be driven.”

“We know that local councils are wanting to do this. Some are finding it difficult in some cases to find the right range of measures and to get the public acceptability for some of the things they think they want to do.”

While the proposal will come as a shock to parents all over the country and may lead to similar proposals in other countries like Australia, Cosford insists they are logical rather than extreme.

“Local authorities have to work out what the right plan for them is, often I think that will be a charging plan.”

The World Health Organisation has found 44 towns and cities in the UK have breached its air quality upper limits, which Cosford says are linked to more than 40,000 pollution-related deaths per year.