Maidenhead & Windsor

Five more Maidenhead Royal Borough schools have gone to the top of the class in their bid to tackle the problems of the daily school run.

The latest five recruits bring to 13* the growing tally of local schools to successfully apply for government funding to set up and implement their own School Travel Plans to address a range of issues and concerns affecting travel to and from school.

Top of their timetable of issues came the high level of car use across the Maidenhead borough at the beginning and end of the school day, the resulting traffic congestion and poor air quality, as well as road safety concerns for those walking and cycling to school.

The five – Furze Platt Senior School, Maidenhead; Holy Trinity Primary School, Cookham; Trinity St Stephen Primary School, Windsor; Windsor Girls' School and Wraysbury Primary School - worked with the council to submit their action plans to the DfES in April, and have just been awarded a total of £33,400 between them to begin to implement measures to tackle their individual problems.

Each school will decide how to spend its share of the grant on improvements such as:
· cycle parking
· storage lockers
· new or revised access arrangements
· walking or cycle routes within the school grounds
· on-site waiting shelters for parents and pupils
· on-site bus facilities (eg turning circle, drop-off or collection point
· new/improved CCTV.

School Travel Plans are part of the Maidenhead council's School Travel Strategy to address the problems of the school run. The other elements of the strategy are:
· road safety education and cycle training for children to give them the skills to walk and cycle to school safely
· safer routes to school, which involves making physical improvements to routes used by pupils to walk or cycle to school.

Cllr Antony Wood, lead member for Maidenhead road safety, said: "This is really good news, and shows that schools are actively responding to the council's ongoing encouragement to set up Travel Plans as part of our wider strategy to tackle problems associated with the school run.

"The Royal Borough has one of the highest levels of car use for school trips in the country and we work closely with schools to encourage walking and cycling to school to tackle problems of childhood obesity and reduced levels of fitness.

"These grants to our schools are the first step on the road to addressing some of the problems, and I'm delighted to report that another half dozen local schools are currently working towards submitting their plans to the DfES and getting the funding to enable them to implement their School Travel Plans."

For further information on Travel Plans contact Gordon Oliver on 01628 796097 or Jessica Nash on 01628 796170.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead