Devon County Council

Sustainable Modes of Travel to School

Devon County Council welcomes the guidance from the DCFS on the local authority’s duties and powers relating to sustainable school travel, and the provision of school travel arrangements for children and young people (Home to School Travel and Transport Guidance DfES 2007).  
The Devon Strategic Plan sets out an aspiration for Devon to be England’s greenest county where young people have a good start in life.  Specifically it declares its intention to:
“Develop healthier and safer alternatives to car travel for pupils travelling to and from school…..”
The Devon Sustainable School Travel Strategy published below sets out the detail of how this may be achieved.
A summary for parents and school communities is available for download below:

Download the Sustainable School Travel Strategy Summary 2009 here (84KB - pdf help)

The full Strategy is available in sections below:

Sustainable School Travel Strategy 2007-2011 ( Published Oct 2007)

Introduction           Vision and Strategic Aims (140KB - pdf help)

Section I                Assessment of Needs (257KB - pdf help)

Section II               The Audit (295KB - pdf help)

Section III              Summary of Strategy for Sustainable School Travel (122KB - pdf help)

Section IV              Implementation and Promotion (187KB - pdf help)

Appendix               Case Study 1 - A city secondary school (129KB - pdf help)
                              Case Study 2 - A small to medium sized rural primary school (31KB - pdf help)
                              Case Study 3 - A medium to large sized rural primary school (33KB - pdf help)

Background

Existing Council policy for provision of home to school transport is published on our School Transport pages together with details of the availability to parents and school communities of support for road safety programmes for children, and the availability of a full service to schools to support the development of their School Travel Plans.
Devon is consistently one of the best performing authorities in England with regard to the development of school-specific Travel Plans, currently 330 (79%) of schools have nationally approved Plans (as of June 2008)and are striving to meet targets to reduce the number of car journeys and increase walking and cycling. The overall target for Devon is a 1.0% reduction in the numbers of car journeys to school by 20/10/11.

The Education and Inspections Act 2006 (section 76) gives local authorities the general duty to assess the travel and transport needs of all pupils and promote sustainable means of travel to school. The fulfilment of this duty is set out in more detail within the Devon Sustainable School Travel Strategy 2007-2011.  This is now published following consultation and development with key internal stakeholders. This new strategy will be integrated into other related school travel policy statements, which are also the subject of current review.  The Strategy is open to comment from other stakeholders and interested parties.  
The Strategy is a dynamic document, adapting to changing circumstances such as different funding streams, further legislation or changes to our county boundary, and consequently will be reviewed and amended regularly.  This incremental approach to achieving our strategic goals is reflected in the tracking of annual targets as part of our overall evidence base.
Devon County Council would like to see the safe and sustainable travel of pupils to school as an objective of continuing importance within its Local Area Agreement. The support of government is welcomed in providing extensions to bursaries to develop School Travel Plans, together with the new special formula grant until 2011-12 to help achieve the new duties under the Act. However, it must be recognised that continued growth in car ownership, combined with parental preference for schools other than their local ones are two significant challenges that face a rural authority like Devon.

Consultation

Views are welcomed about the approach Devon is taking to realise the aspiration for a reduction in home to school car travel.
Comments can be emailed to the Sustainable School Travel Team at stplans@devon.gov.uk  It is intended that the Strategy be reviewed and updated every year.

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