Data collected by schools in the Torbay area via the School Census in January 2008 showed that 35.5 per cent. of children normally travelled to school by car; this included 2.9 per cent. of children who travelled in a car with children from another family.
The Government want as many children as possible to walk, cycle or use public transport to travel to school. In 2003, we launched the “Travelling to School” project setting out how we want all schools in England to develop a school travel plan in order to reduce car use for journeys to school and allow many more children to take regular exercise. By 2010 more than £140 million will have been committed to support the project through local authority school travel advisers and capital grants to help schools implement their travel plans.
92 per cent. of schools in Torbay already have an active school travel plan and the council is on target for every school to have a plan by March 2010. In addition Torbay council has in 2008-09 been awarded a total of £6,500 in Walking to School Initiative grants, together with funding in both 2008-09 and 2009-10 for cycle training for 1,000 children in total.