Bounds Green School wins award for getting parents to ditch the car

Bounds Green School has won a silver award for school travel plans that aim to get parents to ditch the car and walk or cycle with their children to school.

As well as the TfL Silver Award for School Travel Plans, the school was named a Beacon School for its travel work, meaning they set an exemplary standard for other schools to follow.

School Business Manager, Faye Papini led on the project and used the school travel plans to help identify ways that families can safely deliver children to school without using the car.

The school works with Haringey Council's Smarter Travel Team to provide a programme of road safety activities and road safety measures for pupils, based on their Travel Plan.

Cabinet Member for the Environment, Cllr Nilgun Canver, said: "Congratulations to all concerned. These children are setting a great example to us all. We want to cut carbon emissions and reduce the number of cars parking and dropping off around schools every day. This will help us improve air quality around schools and will take many vehicles off the road during the rush hour.  "Also, parking around school is a serious safety hazard and by getting school travel plans in place more families can be discouraged from driving to school."  

Every school in the borough is asked to devise a School Travel Plan which is then used by council road safety officers as a guide to see what physical measures, such as crossings or traffic calming, can be introduced to encourage walking or cycling to school.

Cllr Canver adds: "Bounds Green School is in a particularly busy location where road safety is paramount. This award is well deserved and sets a very high standard for other schools to follow."