STAFF at two Yate schools have been given an incentive to cycle to work.
The Bridgeway Federation of The Ridge Junior School and Broadway Infant School has won a grant from South Gloucestershire Council to fund bikes for staff use.
Yate Community Bike Hub is working with the schools to supply the necessary bicycles and equipment.
Active Travel leads Becky Grundy from Broadway and Chris Strawson from The Ridge (pictured above, right) met with council sustainable transport engagement manager Will Nelson and Rebecca Bennett from the Bike Hub (above, left) to receive the equipment, so staff can start using bikes to commute.
Mr Strawson said: “We conducted a survey of staff across both schools last year and a common theme was a willingness to cycle to work but a lack of decent equipment to make it possible.
“With the successful grant application and the help of the Bike Hub, we now have four full sets of everything we need to allow more staff to leave their cars at home and cycle to work.”
Both schools in the federation are part of the Modeshift Stars active travel accreditation scheme, which gives awards and funding to schools which encourage staff and families to leave their cars at home.
Travel awards
Broadway is a Bronze school, in recognition of its ‘good’ travel plan, whilst The Ridge have been re-accredited as a Platinum school for the second year running for its ‘outstanding’ travel plan.
Mrs Grundy said: “We are pleased to have received the recognition for our work towards cutting down on ‘red’ travel to school, such as car journeys, throughout last year, and we have lots of events planned throughout the coming academic year to try and reduce car use even further.”
Federation head teacher Jodie Tumelty said: “To see both schools working together to make our journeys to and from school greener and safer for everyone is fantastic.
“We know that children who walk to school have more opportunities to engage with their peers and world around them, and arrive to school ready to work and focused for the day ahead.
“We’ve already seen a marked increase in ‘green’ journeys to and from school since The Ridge started their Active Travel plan four years ago and we’re delighted to be working with the local council and the Bike Hub to give staff the chance to ride into school more regularly.”