Walk, ride, park and stride back to school

School travel plans will include cycling routes to schools.

Staffordshire County Council’s Active Travel team is working with 401 schools so parents reduce reliance on the car for getting their children to school.

Each one has a plan that can be shared with parents showing cycle and walking routes with safe crossing points and – if a car has to be used for part of the journey - places where parents can safely drop their children a little distance from school so they can walk the rest of the way.

Jonathan Price, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet member for Education (and SEND), said:

Next month there will be 112,000 pupils in Staffordshire making their own way to and from school twice a day.

We are very worried that in the current circumstances the number of people who travel to school by car will increase and bring more road congestion, parking problems outside already busy schools and increased air pollution.

Many children walk or cycle already and that we want them to continue because that’s good for them and good for the environment, but we would say to everyone else please think now about how your children can get to school with as little car use as possible.”

Staffordshire County Council has been working through the summer with head teachers regarding travel planning for the autumn, after updated government guidance was issued in July.

Parents are advised to regularly check their school’s website and Facebook page as appropriate for local plans, while help and advice for schools and parents about walking, cycling, ‘park and stride’ is available here .

Jonathan Price added:

As well as moving 8,000 pupils on 800 Home to School transport routes every day, there are another 112,000 children moving back and forth daily.

There is the potential for a great deal of school run disruption and I hope that schools and their communities can work together to ‘walk, ride, park and stride’ to reduce the number of cars at school gates.”