Telford & Wrekin Council links up with Denso UK for road safety campaign aimed at primary school children
Primary school children across Telford & Wrekin are being asked to come up with designs for road safety messages for the landmark community traffic island at Hortonwood.
The island was a collaboration between the council and major local employer Denso, to mark the new town’s 50th anniversary in 2018.
Now Denso UK, which manufactures automotive parts, is teaming up with Telford & Wrekin Council once again in a junior road safety competition aimed at all children in Key Stage Two at primary schools across the district.
The youngsters are being asked to come up with road safety message designs, with the winners displayed on the ‘living wall’ on the traffic island.
In addition schools are being invited to come up with plans on how they would use a £1,000 grant to promote road safety – with the winners securing the cash to put their plan into action. £4,000 in prize money will be awarded to four separate schools who will spend the funds on improving road safety in their local community.
Councillor David Wright, Telford & Wrekin’s Cabinet Member for Transport, said: “We are delighted to be working with Denso again on this imaginative competition that will use the talents of our youngsters to promote vital messages about road safety. This builds on the strong working relationship between the Council and Denso, which has helped provide cycle training for many local children and continues to promote road safety across the Borough.”
A company spokesperson said: “As an automotive company, road safety is vitally important to Denso. For this reason we are working in partnership with Telford & Wrekin Council to promote junior road safety through this exciting competition.”
Each primary school in the borough can submit a maximum of one entry per pupil, although group designs will also be accepted. The categories are;
1.The Green Cross Code
2.Seatbelt Safety
3.Slow Down, Save Lives
The design winners will have their designs displayed on the ‘living wall’ for the community to see; receive a framed copy of their design to display at school and be invited to an award ceremony at lunch at Denso UK’s Hortonwood factory. In addition, every child who creates and submits a design will receive a Denso good bag.
In addition schools will be asked to provide a plan for how they would use a £1,000 road safety grant. The four schools with the best grant plans will each be awarded £1,000.
There will be three overall design winners – one for each category – and one winner of the best Grant Plan.
The road safety designs must be circular and a design template sheet will be provided to all entrants. It should be simple, providing a clear image and message. The message must fit into one of the three competition categories.
To enter, keep the original design safe and submit an image of it by email to roadsafety@telford.gov.uk. The closing date for entries is 5pm on Tuesday, 29th June, 2021.
It is the second time the competition has been run, with the first taking place pre-Covid in 2019. It builds on the ongoing partnership between Denso and Telford & Wrekin Council, which has a particular focus on road safety.
Denso also subsidises all the council’s Bikeability training courses, massively reducing the cost to schools which has in turn resulted in more children receiving training.
The company also provides training resources such as hi-vis vests. Denso supports the local community and works to improve road safety as part of its corporate social responsibility agenda and is donating the £4,000 prize money as well as holding an awards ceremony for the winning children.
Denso also sponsored the 2019 National Road Safety Conference which took place at Telford International Centre.
