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   Best feet forward as North West pupils say goodbye to the school runPrimary school children across the North West are swapping their parents' cars for the pavement thanks to a share of £1.8m of Government money: 361 schools in the region have been awarded up to £1,000 to encourage pupils to walk to school, helping them to keep fit and reducing the number of journeys made by car. "Walking buses" are convoys of pupils accompanied by staff or volunteers which follow a set route to school, and are amongst a range of measures introduced by local heads in recent years to curb the number of cars on the school run. Now those schools whose schemes have seen a sufficient drop in the number of car journeys to and from the school gates are set to benefit from an extension to their funding. Transport Minister, Paul Clark, said: "We have always been clear that we want as many children to walk or cycle to school as possible. Not only will this help tackle the issues of childhood obesity and carbon emissions, it is also an excellent way for young children to learn more about road safety. I am delighted that these 361 schools in the North West are doing such great work." Schools which have managed to save an average of five return car trips a day will be receiving a grant of £1,000 to continue their work, while those running smaller schemes will each receive £500. Typically, grants are spent on organising and promoting the schemes, in addition to providing equipment such as high-visibility clothing. NOTES: 1. The Walking To School Initiatives Grant was launched in November 2006 to encourage more primary school children to walk to school. 2. More than one in six (3,200) primary schools in England were awarded funding in 2007. They were required to keep a record of car trips saved and submitted the information to the DfT via their local authorities. 3. In order to qualify for a grant of £1,000 for up to three years, schools had to have a reasonable expectation of being able to set up a 'walking bus' and save an extra five return car trip a day on average. Schools that preferred to set up alternative school-based walking initiatives were required to have a reasonable expectation of being able to save an extra two and a half car trips a day on average, in order to qualify for a grant of £500. 4. These grants are paid to local authorities for onward transition to schools.
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