YOUNGSTERS put their best foot forward with some of the town’s heroes on Monday morning.

Organised by B watch at Stockton Heath fire station, pupils walked to school with firefighters, police and members of the 75 Engineer Regiment from Peninsula Barracks as part of a road safety and healthy schools campaign.

Mark Pollard, watch manager, said the group of nearly 100 youngsters from Thelwall Community Junior School who took part had big smiles on their faces during the walk from the Spar on Thelwall New Road.

He added: “Walking buses have been around for a while but we wanted to do something to reinvigorate it.

“We have a lot of problems during dropping off and picking up times outside schools getting around parked cars and as road safety week, healthy schools week and child safety week fall quite closely together, two of our firefighters Matthew Cullen and Jim Bransom came up with this idea to encourage kids to walk to school.

“We spoke to the charity Living Streets and they loved the idea and it was great to get the kids out walking as well as being able to talk to them about things like the green cross code and the importance of wearing high-vis jackets.

“When we got to the school the parents said they had never seen the roads so clear of cars and we hope it will inspire them to carry on walking to school even if it’s just one day a week.”

Mark added he hoped the ‘Walking with Heroes’ event would also encourage other schools to get in touch with Living Streets.

He said: “The kids were made up walking to school with members of the Army and firefighters and were asking lots of questions.

“We’re really pleased with the way the morning went.”