Approval of your School Travel Plan by Hounslow and TfL leads to a one off capital grant payment for you to spend on access or onsite improvements – see below for some examples of what this money can be spent on.
A typical primary will receive around £5000, with a secondary receiving around £10,000. On top of this the process can turn up innumerable opportunities for attracting sponsorship from local businesses and charitable organisations for example sponsored cycle sheds, walking bus tabards, tree planting etc.
Transport for London have also awarded money to the Borough to match fund school STP grants – therefore primarys could potentially recieve up to £10,000 and secondarys £20,000 on completion of your plan.
For more information see: School Travel News June 2006.pdf
Furthermore, the plan then forms the central document for bidding for additional funds from TfL for larger scale engineering work in the vicinity of the school (e.g. crossings, road calming, footbridges etc). Indeed, it is now a pre-requisite for schools to have completed an STP before such schemes can be considered.
Schools will receive the funds straight from central government through the usual process of “Devolved Formula Capital”.
Permitted Expenditure:
- Lockers
- Cycle storage
- Scooter storage
- New access at school perimeter, only if it is on school land
- New path for pedestrians and/or cyclists in school grounds
- Wider paths in the school grounds
- Drainage
- Improved lighting in school grounds
- CCTV
- On site waiting area for pedestrians
- On site shelter for pedestrians (e.g. parents waiting, pupils waiting for school buses in the school)
- Bus turning circle in school grounds
- Guardrails
- Traffic calming on school access roads in school grounds
- New signing
- Re-siting school fences to improve access
- Remote control entry system for a pedestrian gate
- Trees to ‘eat’ CO2
- Providing a laminated cycle ‘passport’ with a swipe-in chip for the secure store
- Wet weather changing facilities, but not items such as hairdryers unless incidental to larger project
Not Permitted
- Seed money to start off a breakfast club
- Cycle training courses when the instructors have to be paid and/or training of instructors
- Cycle repair workshop equipment
- Buying in expertise for STP-related issues
- Staff time, e.g., supervision at ‘park and stride’ drop-off points, attending STP working groups, input into STP activities such as car-share clubs
- Extra responsibility points for teachers championing STPs
- Publicity and promotional resources
- Tabards for walking bus escorts/passengers
- Trolleys for (walking bus) bags
- Software – for mapping and surveys etc
- Subsidised bike lights/helmets/hi viz/locks for people cycling to school
- Markings to rationalise parking or improve safety of pupils in the vicinity of cars; unless part of larger project
- Active play equipment
