New funding to help more children walk to school

Encouraging healthy habits from an early age is a vital element in any plan to drive less and walk, cycle and use public transport more, in order to solve the climate emergency

Local primary schools will benefit from new funding encouraging pupils to walk to school.

A £1million grant will support 485 schools within Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Merseyside, West Yorkshire and the West Midlands to take part in WOW – the year-round walk to school challenge from Living Streets.

WOW sees walking rates increase by an average of 23 per cent and results in 30 per cent fewer car journeys to the school gates.

At the moment, Living Street is working with 20 schools in Rochdale and these schools will be offered support to continue with WOW. A number of new Rochdale schools will be recruited to the programme from September.

The funding from the Department for Transport comes as part of a package of measures which aim to reduce car use by encouraging more walking and cycling.

A generation ago, 70 per cent of primary school children walked to school but this has dropped to just over half (51 per cent). The government has a target in its Cycling & Walking Investment Strategy to have 55 per cent of primary school children walking to school by 2025.

Encouraging healthy habits from an early age is a vital element in any plan to drive less and walk, cycle and use public transport more, in order to solve the climate emergency.

Chris Boardman MBE, Cycling & Walking Commissioner for Greater Manchester, said: “By increasing the proportion of children and accompanying adults walking to and from school, the project is making children and their parents heathier, whilst cutting air pollution and traffic congestion.

“In 2018-19, 101 schools across Greater Manchester took part in WOW, the year-round walk to school challenge, with average active travel rates increasing from 60% to 81% – an increase of 35%.” 

Joe Irvin OBE, Chief Executive of Living Streets added: “We all need to walk more and drive less, to help tackle the crises of public health, traffic congestion, air pollution and climate change. Starting healthy habits at an early age is crucial to achieving this, yet the number of children walking to school is sadly lower than it was a decade ago.

“Walking to school helps children stay active, which is incredibly important at a time when only one in five children meet the recommended daily amount of physical activity. We are increasingly aware of the impact of air pollution on our children’s health - stunting their lung development and increasing the risk of asthma attacks. One in four cars during peak hours are on the school run and the toxic fumes they produce stay around the school gates long after the cars have left.

“In schools where successful initiatives like WOW are in place, we are seeing more families choose active and sustainable ways to travel.

“We need to be making it possible for families to swap to healthier forms of travel and this funding will go a long way to doing that in these local authority areas.”