Children’s Centre to host road safety event

Darwen Children’s Centre will host a road safety event later this week as part of an ongoing campaign to ensure that the simplest road safety measure of all – holding hands – keeps more children safe on the streets of Blackburn with Darwen.

The Sticky Hands campaign, delivered by Blackburn with Darwen Council, encourages parents and carers to hold their young children’s hands on the routes to and from school and nursery.

The Darwen event, taking place this Friday November 27 from 10am-12pm, also falls during road safety charity Brake’s Road Safety Week – the UK’s biggest road safety event, involving thousands of schools, organisations and community groups every year.

Councillor Mustafa Desai, Executive Member for Health and Adult Social Care, said:

The UK has seen a large fall in children injured on the road over the last 10 years, yet every single injury is still one too many.  This event and the wider project is about teaching parents, carers and children that they can control the single simplest road safety measure of all – holding hands.

On the day children and families will be invited to wear bright clothes and take part in activities such as hand printing onto canvas and making a safety pledge. There will be a digital competition with the opportunity to win four shopping vouchers.

Other activities will include toy car Olympics; singing to songs such as ‘Wheels on the Bus’; stories about road safety; craft activities and role play to learn about pedestrian safety skills.

A local PSCO will also talk to children and families about keeping safe on the roads and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service will be in attendance with a fire engine. There will also be traffic-themed refreshments available in the community café.

The Council’s Connect Team will be there to promote sustainable travel options. Connect’s School Programme provides the only expertise in Blackburn with Darwen to deliver the setting up of Walking buses and Park & Stride initiatives.  In partnership with schools and Modeshift (a leading sustainable travel organisation) initiatives are being delivered locally with schools to encourage an increase in walking and cycling and a decrease in car use providing safer routes in and around our schools.

The Council’s DASH Team will also be on hand to promote their child home safety scheme and energy efficiency services. The Council’s neighbourhood Team will also be on hand with information and advice on safety.

As part of the Sticky Hands project every children’s centre and primary school in the borough was issued with a Sticky Hands pack, featuring ‘Let’s stick together’ wrist bands for children and message-reinforcing playground games. The pack also includes posters which allow schools to set their own ‘Sticky Hand Zones.’

The project is a key part of the borough’s multi-agency accident prevention strategy developed to prevent the harms caused by accidents in Blackburn with Darwen. Accident prevention is also a key priority of the Blackburn with Darwen Health and Wellbeing Board.

Councillor Stephanie Brookfield, the borough’s Road Safety Champion, said:

Staying safe when crossing the road is a message every school, parent and carer tries to reinforce with their children. We’ve tried through this project to ensure hand-holding is a habit everyone sticks to. Come to this brilliant event and see why we can achieve so much more when we all stick together.

Councillor Maureen Bateson, Executive Member for Children’s Services, added:

We’ve asked our schools and children’s centres to actively work on this project with their children and through events like this we can raise more awareness and ask children and parents/carers to work together to ensure that every road is crossed hand-in-hand.