Dunedin North Travels Actively

Dunedin North Travels Actively

The school communtiies at North East Valley Normal, Sacred Heart School, Dunedin North Intermediate and the three neighbourhood kindergartens are joining forces with the Dunedin City Council in preparing school travel plans. Pupils, parents, school and council staff are working together to encourage more active methods of getting to school and will be using the Feet First programme to help them achieve their goal.

The schools, along with the kindergartens, form part of the North East Valley Education Council a group set up to improve outcomes for children in the area. The Education Council is an outcome of the work of the Valley Project which engaged in wide consultation in the area two years ago. Results showed a desire for a stronger more close-knit community and more people walking, more often, was identified as one way to make this happen. The school travel planning project fits in with this goal.

All the schools directly access a busy arterial route into the city and the school travel planning project offers opportunities to explore all road user activity on this mixed use arterial route.

The principals of the partnering schools have the importance of promoting and enabling active travel in improved child health as one of their guiding objectives. The Feet First programme will be a useful resource for the school communities as they move towards active transport modes.

Further information: cflahert@dcc.govt.nz, .