Walk, Don’t Drive Children to School Spanish Council on Costa del Sol Tells Parents

ONE important ongoing project with school children in Benalmadena has been the Safe School Roads programme which is now to be extended.

The concept is very simple, many children are recognised as being obese and in some cases unhealthy or unfit and part of the problem is that parents often bring them to school in cars.

To some extent it is understandable because they don’t necessarily consider it safe for children, especially young ones, to be sent off by themselves and in today’s busy world it is often quicker to take them by car.

The other downside to this is that vehicles cause pollution and congestion and accidents do happen when there are large numbers of cars descending on one place with double parking and the associated risks.

What the council wants to do is to educate children on road safety skills and create special routes which children can use safely with parents initially accompanying the children as they walk and then once they are confident, allow them to walk with their friends.

This should give the children a feeling of being trusted and therefore become more independent whilst being able to spend more time socialising with their friends as they walk.

The added bonus will be that regular exercise of this type should make them fitter and less overweight.

Councillors have consulted various specialist groups in order to give the very best advice as they introduce the concept to more schools within the municipality.