Issued in association with Milton Keynes Council

26 February 2010

Schoolchildren are being recruited as junior road safety officers in a scheme being launched in schools across Milton Keynes next week.

The scheme is being co-ordinated by school travel advisers from the road safety team at Milton Keynes Council, and supported by Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service. It involves two children from years five or six acting as road safety ambassadors in their schools.

The role is to highlight road safety issues to their classmates in the hope that this will encourage children to be more aware of the dangers around roads.

Their three main responsibilities are:

• Speaking in assemblies about road safety.
  
  
• Maintaining an exciting and informative road safety noticeboard.
  
  
• Running games and competitions on a road safety theme.

Each school signing up to the scheme receives a junior road safety officer bag and two tabards which have been donated by Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service.

Schools are also given two information packs with road safety information and tips on how to be a good junior road safety officer.

Jessica Smith, Milton Keynes Council’s school travel plan adviser, said: “A lot of schools in Milton Keynes have problems with traffic and congestion at drop-off and pick-up times.

“We hope that the introduction of junior road safety officers at schools will help to protect children from the dangers of crossing the road at these peak times.”

The scheme will be launched on Wednesday 3 March at St Mary Magdalene Catholic Primary School in Ardwell Lane, Greenleys, where there have been traffic and parking problems at the beginning and end of the school day.

The scheme has been operating in neighbouring Buckinghamshire since 2003. There are currently about 250 junior road safety officers promoting road safety and sustainable travel to fellow pupils.