Borough school closes off street during dropping-off time

St Peter’s Primary's School Street scheme has seen temporary road restrictions put in place in a bid to improve walking and cycling levels and build a safer, cleaner, and healthier environment in which children can travel to class.

It means parents travelling by car are encouraged to find somewhere safe outside of the zone to park, travelling the remainder of the journey by foot or bicycle/scooter.

Coun Jenny Bullen, Wigan Council’s cabinet member for children and young people, said: “By creating safer streets we want to encourage more parents and pupils to actively walk or cycle to school.

“The School Street scheme is just one way we are working with local schools to improve air quality within their vicinity and highlight the proven benefits of cycling and walking instead of using the car.

“It’s a great opportunity for children and their families to get outdoors and to be able to enjoy some quality time together on the way to school.”

Air pollution in Greater Manchester affects the health of our communities and contributes to at least 1,200 early deaths in our region alone each year.

St Peter’s Primary is the fourth school in the borough to take up the initiative.

Coun Paul Prescott, cabinet member for environment, said: “The children and staff at St Peter’s are certainly walking the walk when it comes to improving air quality locally.

“We’re really pleased to see these efforts being made to create a greener Borough, where the children can grow up breathing safe, clean air.

The school will also put a ‘walking bubble’ scheme in place.

Anyone living within five minutes of the school will be encouraged to walk, scoot or bike and anyone outside this radius will be able to find a safe place to park and walk the final five minutes of the journey.

St Peter's headteacher Wendy Cathie said: “It’s such a relief that we have finally got something in place to keep the children and families safe on the way to and from school.

“The roads around school are so narrow therefore as soon as we heard about this scheme we were so excited to be involved.

“With the support for the clean air agenda as well this is a fantastic scheme and we are grateful to have been involved from such an early stage.”

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