The Officer Key Decision meeting of Newham Council on 23 April 2025 was scheduled to consider the implementation of phase four of the Healthy School Streets scheme, and proposed changes to the council's sick pay and leave policies. The report pack includes a recommendation to make permanent the experimental traffic orders for the Healthy School Streets scheme, and a briefing paper for trades unions on proposed changes to sick pay and leave.

Healthy School Streets

The report pack included a recommendation to approve the progression of the phase four Healthy School Streets (HSS) scheme from an experimental stage to a permanent scheme.

The HSS scheme aims to improve the health and safety of schoolchildren and staff by introducing timed access restrictions around schools, enforced by automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras. The report pack notes that during the trial period, no formal objections were received.

The schools included in phase four of the HSS scheme are:

• New City Primary School
• Gallions Primary School
• Shaftesbury Primary School
• Earlham Primary School

The report pack states that the schools were selected based on a weighted evaluation matrix, which prioritises collision history and air quality levels.

The report pack includes data on traffic volumes and air quality before and after the implementation of the experimental scheme. This data indicates a reduction in traffic volumes within the HSS zones, and improvements in air quality. For example, the report pack claims that at New City Primary School, annual emissions of NOx were reduced by 64.05%.

The report pack also notes that penalty charge notices (PCNs) have been issued to vehicles entering the restricted zones during operational hours. A total of 11,764 PCNs were issued during the experimental period across the four school sites, although cameras at Gallions Primary School were vandalised before the scheme went live, so no PCNs have been issued there yet.

The report pack states that the cost of making the traffic orders permanent is £5,000, which will be funded from the 2025/26 Active and Sustainable Capital budget.

Proposed changes to sick pay and leave

The report pack included a briefing paper for trades unions outlining proposed changes to sick pay and leave policies for staff at Juniper Ventures Limited, a local authority trading company (LATCO).¹

The briefing paper states that Juniper Ventures Limited has been losing business to private contractors because its terms and conditions for staff are more generous. It says that the current sick pay provision of up to six months full pay and six months half pay is far greater than that of our competitors.

The proposals include:

• Sick pay to be statutory sick pay (SSP) only for all staff, but after five years' service, staff would be entitled to up to three months full pay and three months half pay, depending on their previous sickness record.
• Extra-statutory days (Christmas closedown) to be converted to annual leave, to be taken from an individual’s leave entitlement.

The briefing paper claims that these changes would make Juniper Ventures Limited more competitive in the market, and would also address a £490,000 shortfall in the budget. It estimates that the changes to sick pay would save £372,799, and the changes to leave would save £63,176.05.

The briefing paper notes that the topic of sickness absence was discussed at a managers focus group in May 2023 and at a staff assembly in August 2023.