CHILDREN have been awarded £5 each for their school to persuade their parents not to use the car to take them there.

Youngsters from 12 East Cleveland schools have received the money from the Department for Education to help to turn their approved School Travel Plans into reality.

Teachers and pupils have carried out surveys to examine travel patterns and come up with ways to reduce the number of cars used to bring children to school, including the installation of cycle shelters, cycle storage areas and waiting shelters for parents.

The money could also be spent on providing cycle training or making the road outside the school safer.

Every local authority across England has been given money to allocate to schools by the Government, which is aiming for every school in England to have a travel plan by 2010.

Primary schools receive £3,750 and secondary schools receive £5,000, as well as a further £5 per pupil at the school.

Other schools in the area that present travel plans to the council will be also eligible for grants.

The ten primary schools in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland, which each receive between £4-£6,000, are: Highcliffe Primary and Park Lane Infant, both Guisborough; J E Batty Primary, Newcomen Primary, Riverdale Primary, Wheatlands Primary, all Redcar; Wilton Primary; Dormanstown Primary; New Marske Primary; and Whitecliffe Primary, Carlin How.

Secondary school Laurence Jackson School, at Guisborough, is receiving more than £12,000, while Huntcliff School, at Saltburn, receives more than £7,500.

The council's school travel co-ordinator, Carolyn Wild, said: "All the schools have worked incredibly hard at drawing up their documents and now is the exciting time when they decide how to spend the money.

"What we want is to encourage the use of sustainable transport for the journey to school and reduce car use for both pupils and staff."

Redcar and Cleveland Mayor Madge Moses handed out 12 cheques to the schools at a presentation in the Mayor's Parlour at Eston Town Hall on Tuesday.