We hosted National Active Travel Commissioner and Chair of Sport England, Chris Boardman CBE, to Houlton in April to showcase our extensive and high quality active travel infrastructure within the community. Aware of our work at Houlton thanks to Sport England’s complimentary assessment and case study in their Active Design Guidance in 2023, Chris was able to see this infrastructure in practice and hear about the innovative ways in which we are activating spaces for people to live active and healthy lives as well as the extent of cycleways and cycling facilities. Recognising that societal modal shift begins with early habit formation, we took him to Houlton School to talk to pupils about their experiences of cycling both out of school and as a mode of travel to and from the school gates.
It was a pleasure to host Chris Boardman and his team at Houlton School - just another fantastic opportunity for our pupils and staff brokered through our close working with Urban&Civic. His visit got us talking about active travel within school and we are now working with U&C on an initiative to better educate and incentivise active travel and cycling within pupils – and expand our range of achievement pin badges!
Michael McCulley, Principal, Houlton School