Milton Keynes Council is to invest £20,000 towards educating primary school aged children about the importance of pedestrian safety.
The council is investing the money into the Safety Centre, a purpose-built interactive education centre for children, in response to a rise in pedestrian casualties on the city’s roads.
The education programme, which has been initiated by the council’s road safety team, will teach children about the dangers of crossing the city’s high speed grid roads, and encourage them instead to use ‘Redways’, footbridges and underpasses. It will begin at the end of this year and continue into 2016.
Since its launch in 1994, the Safety Centre has delivered road safety education to more than 300,000 children. The centre is the result of collaboration between Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service and Thames Valley Police, and creates a partnership between local government and health authorities, and the private sector.
The £20,000 funding for the project has been obtained from parking revenue.
Councillor Matt Clifton, cabinet member with responsibility for road safety, said: “I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to teach children road safety and in particular how and where to use the safe crossing points.
“In Milton Keynes we have a number of high speed grid roads so the footbridges, Redways and underpasses are the safest and best routes for pedestrians and cyclists to use.
“By teaching children early on about road safety they will be able to learn good behaviour which they can take with them as they get older and will increasingly be out and about alone or with friends.”
Jan Alder, director at the Safety Centre, said: “The Safety Centre is delighted to participate in this campaign. ‘Find a Safe Place to Cross’ has always been one of our priority messages.”
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