Schools in Westbury are supporting a national campaign calling on the government to make the walk to school safer and easier for pupils.
Coinciding with Walk to School Week from 19th to 23rd May, the national charity Living Streets wants to encourage every child who can walk to school to do so, but in a safe environment.
The charity is calling for central government to lay out a clear school travel strategy to give pupils priority around the school gates. This involves safe drop-off points away from schools, 20mph speed limits and installing crossings on key walking routes near schools.
Local schools are backing the new campaign to improve school safety. A year ago, Westbury schools backed another campaign calling on the government to implement 20mph speed limits outside schools and improve road safety and are still waiting for action.
Bitham Brook Primary School in Westbury is supporting the Living Streets campaign and Walk to School Week. Headteacher David Ross said, “We want to encourage healthy living among our pupils. Every school has these problems of lots of cars and congestion around the start and end of the school day. I support any campaign that makes it safer and raises awareness that children don’t always exhibit the same care around cars as adults.
“Being in a cul-de-sac, there is not such an issue of speed because most cars are going slow, but I would support a 20mph speed limit for other schools.”
Stacey Budge, headteacher at Westbury Infant School said, “I support the Walk to School campaign to make it safer for everyone around schools. I think having a 20mph speed limit around schools can only be a good thing. We also have issues with lots of congestion around the school gates and cars parking on pavements, which makes it difficult for people with pushchairs to pass.”
David Brown, headteacher at Bratton Primary School said, “I think having a 20mph speed limit outside schools is absolutely essential to the safety of children. Our pupils come from a diverse range of places and so some must come to school via car, but I think that those that are close enough to walk, should. It is absolutely essential for health and well-being to get out and walk. There are lots of nice places in the local area to do this and we take the children to walk around the village and local area.”
Congestion measures around schools which put pupils first are supported by prominent experts such as Professor John Ashton, President of the UK Faculty of Public Health. He said, “One of the things we really should be doing is stopping the drop-off outside the school gates. Instead, we should have park and stride points, say 10 minutes’ walk away, so at least our children get some daily physical activity.
“NICE recommend that children and young people should undertake a range of moderate to vigorous-intensity physical activity for at least 60 minutes over the course of a day. This measure will help to achieve this.”
Living Streets is the national charity working to create safe, attractive and enjoyable streets around the UK.
