Schools in Scotland urged to apply for Safer Routes funding

Funding is being offered to schools and local authorities in Scotland to help them create safe, traffic-free routes. The Safer Routes to School scheme is being funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by the charity Sustrans.

Sustrans hopes that creating safe zones around schools will encourage children and their parents or guardians to travel to school on foot, by bike or scooter.

As well as helping schools develop traffic-free zones, Sustrans plans to target further education colleges and universities through its Community Links programme with projects to help students switch to active travel.

The Scottish government has pledged to double the active travel budget for sustainable transport projects from £40m in 2017/18 to £80m in 2018-19.

Transport minister, Humza Yousaf MSP said: “Further improving road safety and encouraging active travel are priorities for the Scottish Government, and we are fully committed to working with local authorities and schools to prevent our children and young people from being exposed to risk on our roads.

“The doubling of the active travel budget for 2018/2019 has created an opportunity to realise our ambition to build an Active Nation. Schools and all places of education can now benefit alongside local authorities by creating friendlier and safer active travel routes across Scotland.

“The Safer Routes to School fund will help address people’s fears around safety and help to encourage more people to travel by foot and by bike every day.”

Research by Sustrans Scotland found that the main barrier for parents and carers encouraging children to travel more actively to school was fears over their physical safety.

The School Travel Survey for Parents, which was run in partnership with the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, found that 42.4% of parents felt that unsafe walking and cycling routes, a lack of or inadequate pavements, ineffective or lack of crossings, unsafe school entrances and dangerous driving were all major factors which prevented their children from walking, cycling or scootering to school.

The first tranche of funding for the Safer Routes to School programme is open until the 29 June 2018.