Liverpool has won a European-wide award for its work on promoting road safety.
The city was named as a joint winner with Munich in the Mobility and Traffic Safety category in the City of Children Award of Excellence awards which were being presented for the fist time.
The awards, which will become an annual event, are for European cities,with more than 100,000 inhabitants, which have innovative and outstanding projects in the field of child friendliness.
The prizes were presented by racing driver Mikka Hakkinen and singer Nana Mouskouri in her role as UNICEF Ambassador.
They are being made by the City of Stuttgart and the Network Cities for Children in conjunction with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, the Council of European Municipalities and Regions and the Robert Bosch Foundation.
Last year saw a 64% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured on Liverpool’s roads compared with average figures for 1994-98. A series of road safety programmes aimed at children and young people helped to achieve this reduction.
Projects in these programmes include:
Holding Hands – 3-5 year olds
This involves engaging with parents, carers and childminders directly through children’s centre activities in order to influence attitudes towards road and community safety.
Crossright – 5-7 year olds
Programme is delivered to 1,000 children across Liverpool’s focusing on those with high child pedestrian casualty rates for this age group.
Our Walk to School - 7-11 year olds
This year the focus is primary school children aged 9-10 years. Their road safety awareness is raised about their local environment.
Theatre in Education Programme –7-14 year olds
Delivered to 10,000 children in 10-14 year age group deemed to be high risk due to increased exposure to traffic and therefore casualty involvement.
Cllr Peter Millea , Executive Member for Assets and Development, said: “This is a very well-deserved award for our road safety team who train and educate the children of Liverpool about the dangers that they face on our roads.
“There was competition from nearly 70 cities throughout Europe and it shows the high level we have reached in improving the quality of the lives of children and young people.”
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