Twenty-one primary schools are joining the first phase of a new scheme to improve safety and air quality.

They are supporting a mayoral commitment to deliver 50 "school streets" - roads with reduced air pollution levels - outside Tower Hamlets primary schools by 2022.

Schools will work with the council to identify issues experienced outside their grounds and start to develop proposals over the summer for lasting improvements in the surrounding area.

The aim is to identify improvements such as removing areas where idling cars congregate and reducing traffic levels near schools significantly.

A key focus on the programme is road safety - reducing risks to pedestrians, residents and children in the areas surrounding the schools - as well as improving air quality.

Tower Hamlets mayor John Biggs said: "Poor air quality disproportionately impacts on both quality and length of life, so we have been promoting changes to behaviour that will clean up our dirty air."

The council will join other boroughs in closing off roads to traffic on Car Free Day in September.