Council bid to make walk and cycle to school safer

Wiltshire Council is funding road safety measures for school children

A council has pledged to help pupils walk and cycle to school by funding bike storage and wider pavements.

Wiltshire Council has launched its Taking Action on School Journeys programme, to make it safer to walk or cycle to school instead of parents and carers taking children by car.

Councillor Tamara Reay, cabinet member for transport, said: "It improves health and wellbeing helping people to get some exercise, as well as improving air quality and reducing carbon emissions – and it can save money too."

The programme, which includes grants to fund infrastructure, is open to all schools in the county.

Ms Reay said there was "more to do" in this area and it was continuing to work with schools throughout the county "to make it easier for pupils to walk, cycle or scooter to and from school".

The project includes "training a further 13,000 children this year to make their journeys safer", she added.

The projects have so far included an upgraded zebra crossing outside Box Primary School, new bollards and flashing lights by Chapmanslade Primary School and an advisory 20mph limit outside Bitham Brook Primary School.

Other schools expected to see upgrades made are Queen's Crescent Primary, Holy Trinity Primary Academy, Wyndham Park Infants School and the Stonehenge School.