Charity calls for safer routes on school run

A NATIONAL charity is calling for councils to create safer spaces for children walking to school.

After the Government announced £250 million for an active travel fund,

Living Streets is urging local authorities to use part of the money to create School Streets.

The charitywants to see cars banned from school gates at peak drop off and pick up times, to encourage more families to walk to school.

It also wants councils to invest in automatic crossings with reduced wait times and increased green man times.

JenniWiggle, interim chief executive of Living Streets, said:

“As schools plan their return, encouraging parents to walk to school will be an important part of ensuring roads around schools aren’t overwhelmed with cars.

“It’s incredibly important we choose healthy and active ways to travel.

“Not only for our own health and wellbeing, but to protect the strain on the NHS.

“It’s very important that we don’t replace one crisis with crises around inactivity, air pollution and climate change.

“We know from ourwork with schools across the UK that families are put off walking to school by traffic, road danger and air pollution.

“By removing cars, we remove these barriers. In these times, it’s even more important to create space around school gates so families can physically distance.

“Local authorities should use the funding available to improve the walk to school. Living Streets is ready to help them achieve this.”

May is NationalWalking Month, and as part of that, the charitywants people across the country to have access to betterwalking infrastructure.

It is also calling for school leaders and members of the public to write to their local council via the

Living Streets’ online form, urging them to invest in School Streets.

Since launching its

School Streets toolkit last year, Living Streets has seen an increase of schemes across the UK.

Now it wants more local authorities to follow suit.

For more information, visit: livingstreets.org.uk/schoolspace