School Children launch a Walking Bus
Parents and children at St Paul's CE Primary School in Hereford have launched a new walking bus to reduce traffic congestion and make it easier for working parents to take their children to school.
Traffic on Hampton Dene Road in Tupsley has been a problem for some time, as 1600 children are transported to and from St Paul's Primary School and the Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School daily.
In spite of traffic-calming measures introduced last year and regular monitoring by the police, St Paul's has long been concerned about the safety of its children walking to and from school. Issues such as people driving too fast, not paying attention, getting frustrated because of traffic volume, not being considerate to others, all causes friction and potential danger to children which the school wanted to address.
Working with the school travel adviser, the school successfully applied for funding from Herefordshire Council to set up a walking bus scheme. Operating on a Monday and Tuesday to begin with, the children gather at the Cock of Tupsley car park which is on the corner of Ledbury Road and Hampton Park Road. Volunteer parents walk the children safely from the car park to the school further down the road.
Walking Buses are a great way of getting children to school safely and they also cut down on the number of cars coming to school. It's usually those same cars which cause the congestion and danger outside the school gate.
Reginald Thomas, head teacher at St Paul's, said: "We've always encouraged children and parents to walk to school, but realise that this isn't possible for some, particularly for children whose parents have to go to work.
"The scheme we've been able to develop with funding from the government's Walking Bus Initiative has given us the opportunity to provide parents with something a bit different so that their children can get walking, and the parents can have a less frustrating journey into work. Hopefully the children will have fun too."
"I'm delighted the school has set up a new walking bus and hope it will prove to be so successful that they have to expand the scheme to five days a week," said Councillor Brian Wilcox, cabinet member for highways and transportation.
"There are so many cars on the roads at the moment, we need to make sure our children are safe when travelling to and from school," he continued. "It's also important that we encourage children to become active, and walking to school is a good way to start. Congratulations to St Paul's and all the volunteers who have made this scheme possible."
