Parents, teachers and other interested parties are being invited to submit questions for a series of online forums covering child road safety issues, which will be held on the Road Safety GB website during the weeklong event.

The four forums are free of charge and cover children as pedestrians, as cyclists, travelling in cars, and how to set up and run a Junior Road Safety Officer scheme, and will be held daily on Tuesday 5 to Friday 8 May inclusive, between 12 – 1pm.

Trish Hirst and Lynne Thomas, both road safety officers from City of York Council, will be joining the London Borough of Hackney Council for the first forum on Tuesday 5 May to discuss ‘children and cycling’.

Questions can be submitted in advance or during the forum itself, and the panel of road safety expert facilitators will answer in ‘real time’ during the forum.

Trish Hirst, Road Safety Manager at City of York Council, said: “York is one of the top cycling cities in the UK, so we are proud to take part in this national forum to offer advice on children cycling. In recent years we’ve seen a huge increase in young people cycling, which is fantastic, but it’s also just as important that we provide practical information and advice too. We hope this forum will help many people and we encourage everyone to tune in!”

Road safety professionals and other stakeholders are being encouraged to alert schools and other groups in their local areas, in order to give teachers, parents and others the opportunity to participate in the forums.

The forums are part of a comprehensive suite of initiatives here in the UK in support of GRSW 2015. Other initiatives include:

• A series of child road safety resources – including activity sheets, maps and country profilers – which are available free to download.

• A series of simple ‘how to’ guides to help educators and others teach basic road safety to children. The guides cover children as pedestrians, cyclists, travelling in cars and on public transport, and setting up a Junior Road Safety Officer scheme.

• A database of road safety professionals with expertise with regard to child road safety, who are willing to provide advice and support to people in other parts of the world.

Find out more about road safety in York by visiting www.itravelyork.info .

The full online forum programme is as follows:

• Tuesday 5 May – Children and cycling (featuring City of York Council officers)

• Wednesday 6 May – Setting up and running a Junior Road Safety Officer scheme

• Thursday 7 May – In-car safety for children

• Friday 8 May – Children as pedestrians

Find out more at: www.roadsafetygb.org.uk/pages/roadsafetyweek/rsw-forums.html