Junior Road Safety Officers to help reduce congestion and improve safety on the school journey

Deputy Transport Cabinet Member, Paul Irwin, with road safety mascot ALLF and JRSOs.

Children from 30 schools across Buckinghamshire are to start training to be Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSOs).

A JRSO is a school champion for road safety and sustainable travel in primary schools in Buckinghamshire.

The JSRO scheme will help promote school travel initiatives and encourage pupils to travel safely and sustainably with an aim of reducing congestion and improving safety on the school journey.

As part of the training the children are given the opportunity to participate in three workshops from a range of subjects including road safety, school parking, school initiatives and public speaking and heard talks from Thames Valley Police and Fire and Rescue.

The children also had the opportunity to sit in a truck and experience what a real lorry driver would see.

School pupil Alex said: ‘Busy parking near our school means that sometimes people are late for school and parents are late for work! It can also be dangerous because of the parking.‘

As well as meeting front line service staff the children were also greeted by road safety mascot ALLF (Always Look and Listen First), Buckinghamshire County Council Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Transportation Mark Shaw and Deputy Transport Cabinet Member Paul Irwin.

Mark said: ‘The JRSOs really do make a difference at their schools. Promoting safe and sustainable travel helps not only their fellow pupils at the school, but residents surrounding areas as well.‘

Paul said: ‘Every day we get complaints about traffic and parking. The children here are great because they are actively doing something about it. School children and parents of those school children should be inspired to follow in the footsteps of today’s JRSOs and make a difference.‘