A week long national campaign to encourage children to walk to school will be launched at Stratton on Monday, May 18.

As part of the national campaign — Walk to School Week — from May 18 to 22 Cornwall Council's travel awareness team, with schools from across the county, will be celebrating the fun aspect of walking to school.

The number of children travelling to school by car has doubled over the last 20 years and this campaign hopes to reverse this trend. Getting children back into the habit of walking to school has obvious health and environmental benefits and also contributes towards their emotional wellbeing by being a fun, sociable start to the day.

To highlight this May's theme of 'Walking Together', Billy the Boots, the council's walking mascot will be travelling from Stratton to Sennen by sustainable transport, visiting a total of 26 schools en route.

The travel awareness team will deliver assemblies which will focus on the benefits of walking to school as well as letting children know how they can get involved with Billy's journey by keeping a walking diary. Schools will be encouraged to find out how far they travelled together along Billy's route to provide a focus for the week.

The team will also take part in mass walks to schools from various locations and reward committed walkers with stickers as they 'meet and greet' and thank the children who have walked to school across Cornwall.

Every day Billy will be using public transport as well as cycling and of course walking to take him to his destinations to promote the virtues of all forms of sustainable travel.

This year's competition is to design a badge which will be used to promote walking during the next Walk to School Week.

To launch the week, the travel awareness team, with Billy the Boots, will be meeting walkers as they arrive at Stratton School on Monday, May 18 at 8.30am. The team will then deliver an assembly to drum up enthusiasm amongst children and staff before Billy cuts a ribbon to signal the start of his journey, beginning with a stroll along the path which links Stratton to Bude.

The team will be holding a 'meet and greet' at Bude Junior and Bude Infant Schools between 10.15am and 10.45am.

Helen Sutton from the travel awareness team said: "We really hope that schools across Cornwall will get involved in what promises to be a really exciting event. We will be educating children about the health and environmental benefits of walking to school but above all this May's Walk to School Week will be about having fun with your friends and getting involved."