Schools get on board walking bus scheme

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Schools in Ashford have pledged to promote green travel to cut traffic and air pollution levels as well as improve pupils’ fitness.

More than 80 schools in the region were presented with their green pledge certificates at the KM Charity Team Forum. They are promising to promote walking, cycling, scooter use or Park and Stride for the next three years. Locally Aldington Primary School, Charing C of E Primary School, Furley Park Primary School, Great Chart Primary School, John Mayne CEP School, Kingsnorth Primary School and The John Wesley Primary School from Ashford are leading the campaign.

The impact of the walk to school campaign in the county has been considerable with 270,000 school-run car journeys removed from the county’s roads in the last academic year.

Simon Dolby from the KM Charity Team said that the equivalent volume of CO2 removed from the environment weighed the same as 10 times the weight of Big Ben.

He said: “This year we are using the new version of Walk on Wednesday which is called Super Wow! and we still have some of the resource boxes available for schools wanting to hop on board.”

Schools wanting to find out about Super Wow! or businesses wanting to sponsor a local school to use the scheme should visit www.kmwalktoschool.co.uk or email sdolby@thekmgroup.co.uk

Sarah Leipnik of Golding Homes presents green travel platinum pledge certificates to school staff from Churchill School, Hawkinge, Charing Primary School and Furley Park Primary, Ashford