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The results were announced in November 1999 of the "Streets Ahead" competition for Primary Schools in Kent. This competition, which is organised jointly by Kent Country Council and Kent and the Wider World, is judged on the improvement in the way children make their journeys to school, in two separate weeks in May and June, in terms of the environment. In Dartford the project was supported by the Transport and Waste & Pollution Groups of QED. This year over 20,600 children took part from 83 schools in Kent. Schools kept records of the way the children made their way to school during each of the designated weeks and were judged in three categories: How many children walked to school in each week, ow many were single passengers in a car in each week, and how many cycled to school each week. In the first category Dartford had an increase of 14.8% of children walking to school. The second District had an increase of 7.5% - Streets Ahead indeed! In the second category Dartford school again had the biggest reduction of all schools in single car passenger journeys - 7.6% overall. And in the third category - cycling to school - the winning District had nearly TWICE the increase of the second, 4.3% compared to 2.4% And guess who it was? Yes, DARTFORD AGAIN! QED is really proud of the 574 Dartford children who took part with such sensational results. this achievement is a classical example of adults being educated by their children! We hope that parent, children and schools will go on working together to make school journeys evermore environmentally friendly. And we also hope that many more schools will enter the competition next time - with equally wonderful results!
Alan Cremer
Secretary to QED and Environmental Promotions Officer, Dartford Borough Council.