Safe school walking project to be launched

A new project aimed at giving parents the confidence to their children walk to schools across the West Midlands is being launched.

Kids Streets, from the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), could see vehicle movements on roads around schools restricted at the beginning and end of the school day, as well as using new powers to clamp down on pavement parking.

WMCA road safety commissioner Mat MacDonald said: "We've been really inspired by the Parisian model of School Streets where there are permanent infrastructure changes to the streets outside places of education that create people first spaces."

Pilot schemes are expected to start in the coming months.

The project will be delivered by MacDonald alongside Beccy Marston, the West Midlands Active Travel Commissioner.

As well as trying to make it safer for children to walk to and from school, the scheme is also designed to deliver health benefits and cut congestion at peak times.

Marston said: "We're bringing in partners such as Sport England, public health and environment teams and saying 'look, we've got this approach where we want to look at children's health and wellbeing, their road safety and parents' time.'"

A pilot for the scheme would look at Birmingham and potentially Coventry, she added.

Marston said that if they could make parents comfortable with the idea of letting their children walk to school on their own instead of being driven, it freed up not only a car journey, but created other opportunities.

"If you're comfortable with your child getting to school independently, are you comfortable with them getting to a sports club, the park, their friends house?

"The number one thing why people say they don't walk, wheel or cycle is they don't feel safe, so if we can do something about that, it's a win-win for people," she said.

MacDonald said they hoped to get necessary infrastructure works under way by the end of the year.

He said the Parisian scheme had already made a difference to child safety in the French capital, their ability to travel on their own, but he said it also gave the children a sense of ownership over the public spaces they use.

"There are so many positive impacts that will arise from getting our streets right. They are the building blocks of our communities.

"They are a reflection of our priorities as well. Streets that are safe for our children to walk, wheel and cycle will be safe for adults and be far happier, healthier and sustainable places.

"Until we create an environment where our children can be safe, our work is incomplete."

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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