Our Lady of Grace Catholic Infants School

Brent has been awarded funding to make four local school street areas more green, vibrant, and resilient to the climate emergency.

One of these areas is the Our Lady of Grace Catholic Infants School Street and the surrounding area. 

The funding is being used to work the school to come up with ideas for planting in the local area and along walking routes to the school, such as new street trees, flowerbeds, and rain gardens.

What’s planned for your local area?

We are proposing to make the following changes to improve the Our Lady of Grace Infant school street so that our children can attend school with cleaner air and better walking routes, ultimately leading to better health outcomes.

The project aims to make the areas more resilient to flooding, to support biodiversity, and to make the area more pleasant to walk and cycle through.

The proposal includes the following elements:

• Building out kerbs and planting rain gardens
• Planting new trees
• Removing unnecessary guardrails and other street furniture
• Adding cycle parking and seating
• Adding planters to make a School Street Zone
• Creating a green screen along Dollis Hill Lane

Why are we doing this project?

The aim is to use planting to improve the school street and surrounding area so that our children can attend school with cleaner air and better walking routes, ultimately leading to better health outcomes. The project aims to make these areas more resilient to flooding, to support biodiversity, and to make the area more pleasant to walk and cycle through.

Why are these schools included in TfL’s programme?

Projects located in areas of highest climate vulnerability, according to the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Transport for London (TfL), along with greatest potential to increase walking trips were prioritised.

How can the local community get involved?

In Autumn 2022, the council is working with the school community to come up with initial ideas for greening their local area. Once these have been incorporated into preliminary designs, they will be shared on this platform and residents will be invited to share their thoughts on the ideas put forward.

There will also be an opportunity to have your say at an exhibition, dates and locations of which will be shared on this page in due course.

We are also on the lookout for green-fingered members of the community who may be able to help to maintain some of the new planting – if this is of interest to you please contact us at schoolstreets@brent.gov.uk.

What are the timescales for this project?

The aim is to have completed all new planting by Spring/Summer 2024.

This gives us the time to collaborate with the school community and local residents on the design of the schemes. However, we want to deliver results as quickly as possible. So, you may see some tree planting in the surrounding area in the coming months.

Please note that the timescales in the phases below are subject to change depending on the scheme design, construction requirements, and appropriate planting weather.

For more information read the GLA press release.