What is Safer Routes to School?
Safer Routes to School, or a School Travel Plan, it a multi-disciplinary school based approach which aims to improve safety and remove barriers to walking and cycling to and from school. It aims to encourage more people to think about their travel decisions.
What is a School Travel Plan?
A School Travel Plan is a short document about the journey to/from school and is produced by the school. This is a Scottish Government initiative and there is funding available to schools on production of a travel plan. They signify the school’s all-round commitment to develop Safer Routes to Schools and “achieve a modal shift on the school run” .
School travel plans seek to:
• encourage pupils, parents and staff to think about travel choices and choose alternatives to the car when coming to school
• encourage ‘active’ travel like walking and cycling
• measure change and shifts in travel behaviour
Why is there a need for a School Travel Plan?
There are increasing concerns about pupils’ declining health and lack of exercise, for example obesity and the increased risks of future health problems. There is also increasing traffic congestion because of the ‘school run’ and subsequent safety and environmental issues. Finally, pupils have fewer opportunities to develop and practice important road awareness skills if being brought by car.
Developing your School Travel Plan
Click STP Guidance (166kb pdf) to access The Highland Council School Travel Plan Guidance Document.
Staff from the Road Safety Team are available to help throughout the process. Contact details below.
Funding Structure
The following grants are available for Highland Schools to bid for to make improvements to school routes:-
• Up to £1,500
Small Grant Funding is available to every School, bids are approved by the Road Safety Team and do not require a School Travel Plan.
• £1,500 - £30,000
£30,000 is the maximum funding application for an individual School per annum, bids are subject to Councillor approval at the Resources Monitoring Working Group. Any bid between £1,500 - £30,000 requires the production of a School Travel Plan (or an update of a Schools existing plan).
Safer Routes to School applications should be made using this SRTS Application Form.
Examples of Safer Routes to School Schemes
A photo gallery of images of completed SRTS schemes in Highland is available here.
Contact Information
For further information regarding the Safer Routes to School Scheme in Highland please contact:-
The Highland Council
Road Safety Team
Ardross House
3 Ardross Terrace
Inverness
IV3 5NQ
E-mail: road.safety@highland.gov.uk