UR TV CAST

You are making life much less pleasant and more dangerous for those who do walk. And you are setting a very bad example to your children.So in Walk to School Week stop making excuses and get on your feet – it’s a few small steps for you, but a giant leap for sedentary mankind. You are adding to the traffic jams that have become the prominent feature outside our schools. You are consuming more of the world’s dwindling supply of fossil fuels.

You are clogging up the roads and adding to the pressure for new road networks. You are spending a small fortune on petrol and wear and tear on your car. Give me headlice any day.So before you reach for your car-keys, think very hard. You are denying yourself and your child a valuable opportunity to keep fit.

You are contributing to the pollution that is already provoking asthma in our children, and which may one day deny them a future altogether if global warming really hots up. But the school, which prides itself on promoting a healthy lifestyle among its pupils, tells us there is simply nothing it can do. What a shame we don’t kick up such a fuss about the heart disease, posture and weight problems that are the inevitable legacy for our under-exercised children. A recent epidemic of headlice sent waves of near hysteria through the playground, letters were issued, posters erected, infected children peremptorily dispatched home for treatment with liberal doses of insecticide. Parents are a law unto themselves.And what an odd set of priorities they have. In the end it’s difficult not to draw a simple conclusion – most parents would rather put short-term convenience before the long-term well-being of their children.A committed minority have, and are, trying to get things changed with repeated requests to the head, governors and PTA to help deal with problems of congestion and speeding. I know that the school’s repeated requests to park by the village hall to relieve congestion are consistently ignored.

I know almost no one who bothers to organise a lift share if walking is not feasible. Yes, I know we’ve all got such busy schedules nowadays, what with work and ferrying the kids from activity to the next. Yes, I know many people, especially in rural areas, live some distance away.But I also know people who live just yards from the school who insist on driving. Statistics show that less than 6 per cent of children now walk to school compared to 80 per cent some 20 years ago.