Be Active team supports safe streets

Alex Costen, our Active Travel Officer has shared a quick blog on the team's work with St Martin's Primary School, who have recently launched the first 'School Street' scheme on the island. The team have already worked with the school on active travel indicatives leading up to this, scroll down to watch or check out our video here. 

"We are fully supportive of St Martin’s Primary School’s push to make the streets around the school safer, and to encourage children to be more active on their journeys to and from school. 

The school has made significant strides already when you think that cars used to park on the playground at pick up time. I think what’s also most encouraging is that the real push has been from the pupils themselves. They want to travel actively and be healthy and don’t want to mix with cars as they arrive or leave each day and so have driven the debate forward.

Members of the Be Active team helped to distribute letters to residents in the surrounding area ahead of the latest trial to close the road to traffic at certain times and hearing the children telling residents why they deserve to be safe and why they want a school street, was brilliant. At the end of the day, they are the future community and if they start to embed healthier habits as children, then hopefully the habits, to walk, or cycle and be active, will continue into adulthood. There’s certainly no sign of the school and its community slowing in terms of their motivation to make change and if they can act as a test bed and motivator to other schools to think about safety around their school, then I think that’s really positive."