Back to school and chaos, why walking could be the answer

Walk devised by pupils and staff St. Mary Magdalen's Primary School, Penwortham. Described by Bob Clare, chair of Norwest Fell Walking Club.

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"Back to school" and another chance for me to air my annual rant about the school run and how unnecessary it is for most children especially where I live in leafy Penwortham.

I once referred to Penwortham as "School Town" - three high schools and nine primary schools which amounts to an awful lot of children, teachers, teaching assistants, parents and grandparents on the move morning and afternoon. In children alone it amounts to 5000+.

We live close to a high school and experience the school run mornings and afternoons. In the mornings there is a gradual build up of traffic reaching a peak about 8.20am when cars, school buses, kids on bikes and kids on foot flow into the short cul-de-sac leading to the entrance. The evenings are somewhat akin to the Le Mans Race start when lines of vehicles parked on the approaching streets ready to receive their passengers at home time - an intense frenetic period ensues the school bell and children are whisked away to enjoy the time saved by not walking to...apply themselves to French verbs homework? Or play on their smartphones? I despair of the wasted human effort in the Penwortham school run or at least I use to until I found out about the work St. Mary Magdalen's Primary School has been doing to reduce the school's carbon footprint.