Come and join the walking bus on Rosendale Road, after school on Thursday! It will take us to the perfect after-school event – the Carnival of Clean Air! 

There’s a huge amount of fun to be had, from live music, art, bubbles, biscuits & squash, science and politicians. Yes! Politicians! If you feel strongly that our children have a right to clean air, this is your opportunity to show it. The event will have all the relevant politicians there – from MP Helen Hayes, to Rezina Chowdhury, the Cabinet Lead for Clean Air, and deputy leader of the council. Show them that you support ambitious action to improve the air in our area. If we don’t tell them, they won’t know. This is our chance.

MUSIC & ART

There’s music from the Clean Air Chorus, a collaboration between the Singing Mamas and local school choirs, singing clean air classics. An afrobeat brass band will accompany the event – lung power in action! Linett Kamala will be decorating the street with art inspired by carnivals AND respiratory health, and the kids can join in.

BIKES & SCIENCE!

How do we get all this important clean air? That’s where bicycles come in; Herne Hill Velodrome coaches and bikes will be there to put kids through their paces, as will For2Feet with their scooter school, and Dr Bike, to fine tune your trusty steed. Then there’s the science trail with some of the most eminent scientists in the world of air pollution. All this AND the world’s tallest bubbleologist, doing his clean air, bubbly magic.

And it’s all FREE!

Happy new year! Here’s a handy recap of what we got up to last term & all the exciting plans ahead. Happy reading..

Autumn term recap..

A busy Autumn term is starting to yield some rewards~ thank you for all your hard work, support and engagement. In October, our bike bus for school streets was attended by approx 80 people and ran in two directions, taking over the roads from the South & the bike lane from the North. The corresponding petition gathered over 200 names which we submitted to Lambeth. There is growing support for greater protection immediately around Rosendale and Turney Schools in light of recent studies into the damage pollution causes to children’s health, along with pressing safety concerns.

We were also busy raising awareness about main road issues. Peak time congestion on local main roads around Herne Hill Junction badly affects all those living & actively travelling through the area (including using the public buses).To help address the terrible congestion, we are calling on the authorities to expedite their plans for Road User Pricing (RUP) and for our area be an early adopter of it. To launch our petition, we organised (another!) bike bus in December to travel the length of Croxted road during the am peak. Although adults only and a difficult time for many parents, we were delighted to have participants from other schools such as Oakfield and Rosemead, along with a strong representation from local residents who feel the effects of appalling traffic levels. This petition has gained the support of 147 people only a month in, which has reached the ears of some of our local representatives, with Helen Hayes MP writing to the Mayor of London and Southwark councillors taking it to Southwark council.

Other significant developments include securing an air monitor through Breathe London community programme which should be set up this term and provide real time pollution data – we hope will not be too horrifying (!) but this will undoubtedly add significant data to our campaigns towards cleaner air. Rosendale school has also been fortunate enough to be awarded one of the two free Home Run apps for our area, which promotes journey sharing, whether by foot, bike, public transport or car and provides incredibly rich data on general school run movements that can be used by local authorities and TfL for better planning. We’ll be rolling this out to parents this spring term.

What’s coming up?

We’ll be supporting the council on the final statutory consultation for the Rosendale bike lane extension with controlled parking zone. Once that is completed, the physical implementation of these measures is currently planned for May. The bike lane extension and controlled parking will bring welcome safety improvements to the area and we will aim to celebrate & raise awareness with another second-hand bike market. Staying with bikes, we intend to plan a joint bike bus with other nearby schools to coincide with Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel week in March.

Lots more to work on; developing school street plans with councillors, more on RUP, building relationships with other schools and residents for our shared aims, and we hope to do some more events where we can meet in person from coffee mornings to protests (all views on tackling air pollution welcome!). Let us take the momentum we are building into 2023 and be at the heart of the drive towards cleaner air around our schools and our community.

We congregated, an awkward assortment of people and bikes, on a bright early December morning. Croxted is a long road and despite our shared address or association with local schools, there were plenty of new introductions. We were brought together at a difficult time by our common concern for dreadful local congestion levels on main roads, particularly around schools. This affects our bus services, air quality and limiting the attraction of more sustainable travel options. It was decided that it would be adults only as it was felt too dangerous for our children to accompany us, showing this road and those adjacent, desperately require major improvements for the many pedestrians, cyclists and their children who live here and use it daily.

Progressing steadily north up Croxted at 8:45, we were joined by Rosemead and Oakfield parents at the south circular, shortly delayed by the blocked junction and then suffering the first of some dangerous overtaking, highlighting the appalling safety considerations of a major crossing next to a primary school. Similar problems were encountered at the Turney road junction but chatting to other participants, there was a feeling of safety in numbers which for many of us was a new experience. 

There was a slight trepidation approaching the next section of the road to the Norwood junction as the road narrows and congestion worsens. There is no opportunity for cyclists to use this section of the road safely without waiting behind the throngs of traffic which we duly did, coughing in lungfuls of exhaust fumes, before finally emerging into Norwood road bus lane and finishing at the Brockwell Park entrance.

Interesting discussions ensued, as participants chatted collaboratively about their different views on the local road restrictions with further suggestions on reduction measures. There was however, a consensus that there is a real congestion problem in our ward, due in no small part to school run traffic servicing thousands of school places in this area. Croxted is not alone, locally or across London, but we wanted to highlight main road problems and demand action as main roads hold the most traffic and account for the greatest number of road incidents. All present, along with the larger Rosendale Clean Air group support the early trial of road user pricing, for which we have launched a petition.

Smart & Fair Road User Pricing ‘SFRUP’ is likely to be introduced by TfL within the next three to four years to help reduce traffic in London by 28% by 2030. As part of the Mayor’s Transport strategy, it got further backing just a few weeks ago from the London Assembly. While the end goal would be a pay as you drive GPS-based system, before we get to that point we will likely see more ANPR based charging for the use of a private vehicle on A roads and red routes at, or increased at, peak times. Given the name, it is our hope and campaign that vulnerable groups will be considered with exemptions for blue badge holders and SEN transport. We would also like to see larger, more expensive and polluting cars charged proportionally.

Finally, we would like our political representatives, Lambeth and Southwark councils and TfL to work constructively together to reduce congestion on main roads and offer better safety provisions to more vulnerable road users.

Thank you for reading & do support our petition here for an end to congestion on our roads.

As parents we all know how important it is that kids eat healthily, but did you realise that every time a child breathes – 30 times a minute – they bring air deep into their lungs? This means the quality of the air they breathe is just as important as the food they eat.

Air pollution causes asthma, as well as reducing how big a child’s lungs grow to, which has lifelong health effects. It also reduces cognitive function and has a huge range of other health impacts. Because of these issues, the PTA paid for diffusion tubes to measure the pollution levels in the Rosendale playgrounds and the roadsides. The diffusion tubes measured the air pollutant nitrogen dioxide (NO2) which is caused by vehicle exhaust. We have summarised the final results from the diffustion tube analysis below. Analysis of the first half of the year can be found here.   

1. Sadly pollution levels rose from September 2021 onwards.  The reasons for changes in air pollution can be complex but it is certainly likely to be a combination of vehicle volumes around the school, perhaps more people driving during the colder, wetter months. The other factor that could have an impact is the colder temperatures (cold air is denser and can result in some pollutants hanging around for longer – see this article for reference ). 

2.These levels of around 25 micrograms/m3 ( micrograms/cubic metre) are well above the legal World Health Organisation recommendation of 10micrograms /m3. The lowest reading is in August when all schools are off and the level drops to 14, not too far off the WHO reccomendation. This is because peak time traffic is significantly reduced in August and a big part of this is because parents are not driving the school run throughout schools in Dulwich (though it is not the only driver of traffic reduction in August, parents are more likely to be off work also etc). Therefore if Rosendale & all other local schools can help parents reduce single-family car use by walking, cycling, journey sharing, car-pooling, taking a mini bus or public transport instead of single family car trips, then all children will be able to breathe much healthier air. 

3. When we compare the current year readings to the 2017 readings, what is really concerning is that there has not been any improvement in air quality. This is hugely disappointing because there have been measures like the Ultra Low Emission Zone implemented in 2019 ( central London) & October 2021 ( expanded to south circular) which have “cut nitrogen dioxide emissions by 22% across Greater London”. The green bars on the chart represent where the playground readings SHOULD be, if they were keeping up with the air quality improvements throughout London.

In summary pollution levels are at concerning levels and perhaps more concerningly have not improved in line with the rest of London.  We need urgent action to reduce all school run traffic throughout the local area and there are really easy ways we can all help to do this, first and foremost by reducing our own school run car use.

If you would like support on how to reduce your own school run car use or to find out more about helping parents travel sustainably to Rosendale school, please email cleanair.rosendale@gmail.com.

The non-catchment schools around Rosendale (Dulwich Prep, Dulwich College, Oakfield, & Rosemead) also create a signficant amount of through traffic & air pollution around Rosendale which you can see the impact of here. If you would like to join the growing numbers of parents & residents calling for more sustainable travel options for these schools too, please check out the Sustainable School Run campagin run by local parents. You can really help by simply staying in touch & spreading the word to others!

* Plese note – none of the nitrogen dioxide diffusion tube readings in this analysis have been bias adjusted, however this does not materially impact the general comparison to WHO recommended levels or the direction of travel since 2017.

 

 

A fantastic effort from the school staff & parent community over the last two years in committing to active travel and reducing car journeys.

The Transport for London (TFL) stars program provides a framework of activities for schools to reduce car journeys in order reduce air pollution, improve road safety and enhance health and well being.

Rosendale completed 17 active travel activities, such as pedestrian & cycle training and ‘Walk to School Week’ as well as numerous supporting activities like awareness raising in local newspapers, social media and the school newsletter.

We were awarded a Bronze star in September 2021 but we completed so many activities, we nearly got Silver. Please see below our incredible progress – here’s to silver or gold this year!

If you would like to get involved – either by helping to raise awareness or running an activity please get in touch – message Nicola on 07765105115.

The parent community recently raised funds to measure the air quality in the school playgrounds and roadside outside the school and we now have the first round of results.

1. If the air the children are breathing had a colour it would be this …

2. The diffusion tubes measure nitrogen dioxide (NO2). This is the toxic gas given off by petrol and diesel cars. The recommended level from the World Health Organisation (WHO) was recently changed from an annual average of 40micrograms/m3 (micrograms per cubic metre) to 10 micrograms/m3 due to the terribly damaging impacts on health this toxic gas has. Unfortunately the diffusion tube results at Rosendale for the last 5 months greatly exceed this recommended amount in every single location including in the playgrounds. Results as follows

• Results below (average of last 5 months)
• WHO recommend limit:10.0
• KS1 playground: 14.8
• Kate Taylor playground: 17.1
• Rosendale road: 17.19
• Turney road: 19.02

3. Turney road is higher than Rosendale road and we imagine that this is because Turney road is more congested generally and possibly also because the cycle path on Rosendale Road keeps the toxic fumes further away from the pavement.

4. Note in August, when the school is closed, most of the pollution levels are nearly at recommended levels. So, perhaps that shows us that healthy air is achievable without car use for school runs…

5. Additionally, an average is a fairly crude measurement and hides huge peaks in pollution at drop off and pick up when the children are on the roadside and very exposed to the fumes. Projected peaks at these times are over 40micrograms/m3– you can also view hourly data in more detail at this Airly monitoring page.

6. What does that mean for the children’s health? All Nitrogen dioxide exposure is harmful to children whose bodies are still developing and who are closer to vehicle exhausts. These recorded levels of nitrogen dioxide will unfortunately be damaging the children’s lungs, reducing their cognitive function and storing up health problems for later in life. Please see this government link for information on how harmful these car fumes are to health.

7. The good news…. we can stop damaging our children’s health by making a community effort to reduce car use and cycle, scoot and walk wherever we can. Given the traffic levels in the area, cycling is almost always faster then travelling by car. So please consider giving cycling a try, there are more resources & affordable bike programs now than ever before to support families of all sizes get around. Please email cleanairrosendale@gmail.com for support and advice. We really can make a change.

6. Huge thanks to everyone who donated to the diffusion tubes initiatives. We will release further results at the end of the program. We are also looking at ways the children may be able to use the diffusion tubes in “bringing science to life”.

Walking Wednesday is back! Walking together shows our community that Rosendale families walk to school! And it may encourage those on the road to try it too. Join this fun, green way to get to school – the line runs every Wednesday morning from Brockwell Park with stickers for those walking kids.

Hello everyone – our walking crocodile lines (formerly walking buses) are back. Below is all the information you need to join this green, social & fun way to get to school.

What is a walking crocodile line ?

A walking crocodile line is where children and their parents join with lots of other Rosendale families to form a lovely long line to walk to school.

What’s so great about them?

Walking crocodile lines are a chance to meet families in the Rosendale community from different classes and years. They are a social and fun way to get to school and children will get a sticker at the end! Better still when we are walking we are waking our bodies and minds up in the morning and because we are not driving we are keeping pollution away from the school. Also when other people see these fantastic Rosendale walking lines they might think it looks fun and decide to walk too!

How do I join the lines ?

We are running two walking crocodile routes to school, one from Brockwell Park and one from Wigwam toyshop on Rosendale road south of the school. You can join a walking line whenever you see it – here are the timings of the routes.

Route 1 from Brockwell Park

8.40 Depart Herne Hill park gate – 8.45 Rosendale road park gate – 8.55 Arrive at Rosendale road school gate

Route 2 from Wigwam toyshop, Rosendale road

8.40 Depart Wigwam toyshop – 8.50 Walkerscroft Mead – 8.55 Arrive Rosendale/Turney roundabout

I live quite far from school – is there parking nearby?

Yes, you can “park and stride!” Parking is available for Route 1 in Brockwell park car park and Route 2 in Eastmearn road near Wigwam topshop. Parking well before you get to school keeps harmful vehicle pollution away from the playground and the air the children breathe.

How can I find out more about active travel?

Please see these pages of our blog or better still join our clean air group – we welcome all help! The easiest way to help is to join our WhatsApp group to help spread the work – email cleanair.rosendale@gmail.com to be added.

We had a great day at the school’s summer fair at the end of term. We set up an obstacle course for the children, to show how much fun clean air can be! Yes! Really. 

First they had to ‘active travel’ on a balance bike through some cones, or around them, or on them – the choice was theirs! Then they reached a pile of bean bags and had to throw them on an image of their favourite form of active travel – walking, scooting or cycling. 

Once they’d completed the challenge they got a sticker (advertising our Walking Crocodiles that will happen every Wednesday in the new academic year), and the chance to look at a life-size model of lungs and discuss how important they are. Then they chose their prize, a biodegradable balloon (full of clean air), a seed bomb, and if they were really lucky, a sweet.

Parents had a chance to read up on why clean air is so important, especially around schools, plus join our Rosendale Clean Air group. It was a fun day out, and we look forward to seeing many of you in September at our Walking Bus.