Richard Fuller MP

words from

Richard Fuller, MP for North East Bedfordshire

Walk to School Week commences on Monday 16th May and is a practical opportunity to champion a greener and healthier lifestyle for school children.

Living Streets, a UK charity promoting everyday walking is the national organiser of Walk to School Week. If, like me, since the Covid lockdowns you have become more focussed on walking daily – and checking your steps – anything that encourages families to walk, wheel, cycle or scoot to school is welcome and we see the big differences that come from small steps – from healthier and happier children to fewer cars outside the school gates.

This year’s theme is #PowerUp, aiming to engage school pupils through video-game inspired design by unlocking new missions to complete each day, through which pupils will discover the benefits of walking for individuals, communities and the planet.

A generation ago, seven out of ten primary school children walked to school, but now this has dropped to just over half. Walking to school helps children build healthy habits for life, reduces congestion and air pollution around schools, improves safety and gives families quality time before and after school.

The Government has recognised the importance of walking to school and has outlined in its Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy ways to reverse the decline and to have 55% of primary school children walking to school by 2025.

Since the pandemic, the government has started several initiatives to enable more people to help the environment by making more use of active travel options. In summer 2020, the Prime Minister launched ambitious plans to boost walking and cycling, with a vision that half of all journeys in towns and cities are walked or cycled by 2030. This included a £2 billion package of funding for active travel over 5 years – the largest amount of funding ever committed to increasing walking and cycling in this country.

When I visited primary schools across North East Bedfordshire last November for COP26, I was really pleased to hear that a number of schools already organise ‘walk to school’ weeks and I hope this year’s initiative will encourage more parents and children to think about their commute to school. Even parking a little way from the school reduces congestion and air pollution at the school gates and improves road safety.

Walk to School Week provides a fantastic opportunity for families to give walking to school a go and see how they could make a more permanent change to their travel plans. For more information on how your local school can get involved, please visit:

www.livingstreets.org.uk/walk-to-school