A SCHEME to promote sustainable travel – walking, cycling and using public transport to get to school - is on the right road at a Kent school.

Students at St George’s School at Broadstairs are taking part in an ongoing initiative to encourage green travel and a healthier lifestyle, with a number of them forsaking car lifts to and from the campus in favour of other methods.

Those taking part in a three-day scheme to encourage them to use green transport were given raffle tickets and at the end two names were drawn and each student was presented with a new cycle.

The winners were 12-year-old Bradley Wall and Nicole Baldwin, who is 13.

The initiative was part of the school's successful bid to the Government for £10,000 funding to develop its own sustainable travel scheme.

The money has enabled the construction of a 60-space storage centre that is weatherproofed, with security systems and lockers for cycle equipment including helmets and lights.

The transport project bid was put together by school estates manager Jackie Thompson and senior teacher Peter Hart.

Mrs Thompson said: "It is important that students learn the value of green transport and we are doing our best to encourage them to think about alternative ways of getting to school rather than a lift with relatives or in a taxi.

"Cycling and walking have obvious health benefits and using the bus promotes the use of public transport to help reduce the number of cars on the road. It is an important issue and one with far-reaching socio-economic and environmental consequences."

The school has also carried out a traffic survey in the area and is also advocating use of the Thanet coastal cycle project and the expansion of cycle routes around the island.