Road Safety and Active Travel to School Debate
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Andrew Cooper
Main Page: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)Department Debates - View all Andrew Cooper's debates with the Department for Transport
Road Safety and Active Travel to School
Andrew Cooper Excerpts(1 week, 5 days ago)
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Andrew Cooper (Mid Cheshire) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mrs Hobhouse. I will make three points.
Affordability can be a barrier to children taking up active travel to school. We have a great local charity in my constituency called Changing Lives Together, which runs a scheme called ReCycles. The scheme, which was launched last year, saves bikes from going to waste by refurbishing and reusing them, and taking old donated bikes to do so. It has have saved about 220 bikes to date. I hope that we can encourage that type of scheme nationally to allow people to overcome the affordability barrier.
On infrastructure, we need a cultural shift in how we plan and think about development. Section 106 agreements need to give greater consideration to active travel routes to ensure that new developments do not just provide homes, but create safe environments for children to travel to school.
Finally, we should take the opportunity afforded by the curriculum and assessment review to embed cycling and active travel in our education system. Just as swimming has been part of the curriculum since 1994, Bikeability level 2 at key stage 2 would equip children with the skills and confidence needed to cycle safely.