East Riding pupils make great strides forward as part of green travel scheme

Pupils at St Mary’s C of E Primary School celebrate Green Tree Travel Week with, from left, Wendy Copley, teaching assistant and eco lead, Christian Jordan, assistant road safety officer, and headteacher Laura Wallis.

Pupils at schools in the East Riding chose to leave cars at home and instead walk or ride the school run as they took part in a project promoting greener travel.

Fourteen schools took part in the Green Tree Travel Week project run by East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s road safety team, where students collected leaf stickers on cardboard trees for every journey they made on the school commute by foot, scooter or cycle.

More than 5,000 youngsters took part in the initiative, which resulted in an overall 20% reduction in car journeys and an increase in more active travel.

The project encouraged pupils and staff to think daily about their choices of travel and question if their journeys could be made more sustainable, by walking, wheeling or by parking the car five minutes’ walk away from school and opting to ‘park and stride’.

Councillor Paul West, the council’s cabinet member for environment and transport, said: “It’s great to see this project making a really positive impact at so many local schools.

“I know pupils, families and staff really embraced this initiative and it was a real pleasure for our team to work with them in the schools.

“Choosing to walk or ride instead of using cars is healthier and better for the environment, and by getting that message across to the younger generation we hope it will make a lasting impression.”