Schools back safe journey routes

Walking to school also has health benefits for pupils

Nearly 500 schools in Essex have set out travel plans to boost pupil safety during the journey to and from home.

This step aims to reduce the number of child casualties in the county, which has already fallen from 108 five years ago to 74 in 2007.

The fall is due to safety campaigns by Essex County Council and its casualty reduction board, a spokesman said.

Many travel plans include walking buses and this year 100 Essex schools took up supervised route initiatives.

"This provides about 1600 children with safer, supervised walking routes, encouraging children to get added daily exercise, which helps them to be more alert and ready to learn when they get to school," the county council spokesman added.

This year 14,747 pupils are due to start school for the first time in the county and the county has also received a record number of applications for school transport.

More than 7,000 applications have come from under 16s and 4,000 from those over 16.

Currently about 23,000 children are transported to school every day.