PARENT volunteers who take a turn to escort Walking Buses in Kent are in with a chance to win a ferry crossing voucher worth £200.

P&O Ferries has decided to step up its support of the KM Walking Bus Project and will for the coming 12 months support the charity’s regular prize draws for parent helpers.

Britain’s biggest ferry firm has supported the project over the last four months in selected parts of the county but has now agreed to provide a ferry voucher each term for the coming year for all 11 operational areas of the project.

Chairman of the charity, Simon Dolby, said: "We are absolutely delighted that P&O Ferries is to support us in this way. The value of this support and other ideas they have to help us amounts to more than £7,000.

"In many areas of Kent the biggest challenge we face is finding ways to encourage more parents to take a turn on their Walking Bus. They are happy for their children to go on the scheme but sometimes reluctant to lend a hand.

"Providing regular chances for parent volunteers to win great prizes such as the vouchers from P&O Ferries is a powerful incentive to tempt people to take a turn on their Walking Bus rota.

"In many areas we now encourage all schemes to make it compulsory that families must occasionally take a turn to help if their child is on a Walking Bus - there the prize draws are an important way for us to say thank you to helpers."

Brian Rees of P&O Ferries said: "The Walking Bus is a great scheme and P&O Ferries is delighted to back it. We have thousands of employees living across the county and for many of us being able to walk to and from school was taken for granted when we were younger - there was nothing like today's traffic, for a start.

"We wish the scheme every success and all the signs are that it will continue to go from strength to strength thanks to the hard work of so many dedicated volunteers."

Last year P&O Ferries carried 9,277,000 passengers across the 22 nautical miles between Dover and Calais. To find out more information about sailings view www.poferries.com.

To find out more information about setting up a Walking Bus view the project’s daily updated news and information website www.kentwalkingbus.org or call Simon Dolby on 07989 164 752.