£60 million government investment to transform the school run for 2 million children
- The initiatives, launched by Active Travel England (ATE) will enable more children to make active choices when travelling in their communities.
- The two-year funding will include £50 million to expand Bikeability cycle training to a million more young people.
- A further £5 million will support the walk to school programmes aimed at pupils across England via the charity Living Streets.
- Chris Boardman, Active Travel Commissioner stated: “This £60 million funding package will help put the joy back into journeys and create a generation of young people who feel confident to make healthier and greener travel choices”.
- For more, please visit Gov.UK website.
More than 1 million children in UK sleep on floor or share bed, study finds
- Barnardo’s has reported that more than a million children in the UK sleep on the floor (440,000) or share a bed with parents or siblings (700,000) as their family cannot afford to replace broken bed frames and mouldy linen.
- The charity has stated that “bed poverty” reflects growing levels of destitution in which low-income families already struggling with soaring food or gas bills find they are unable to afford a comfortable night’s sleep.
- The report found that these sleeping arrangements are leaving them tired, anxious and finding it hard to concentrate at school.
- Barnardo’s have also reported that meagre social-security benefit levels and policies such as the two-child benefit limit were fuelling bed poverty.
- A government spokesperson has reported that they are supporting families with food, clothing and beds through the household support fund and have raised benefits and pensions by over 10%.
- For more, please visit The Guardian website.
The teenagers killed in London so far in 2023
- The death of 15-year-old Elianne Andam died as a result of an attack in Wellesley Road in Croydon on Wednesday morning.
- She was one of 15 young people to lose their lives in London so far this year.
- Croydon itself was referred to as “London’s knife crime capital”.
- There have been 79 violent deaths across London this year, according to the PA news agency.
- Knife crime figures for England and Wales show that the West Midlands and Cleveland had a higher rate than London per 100,000 people in 2022/23.
- For more, please visit the Sky News website.
