A new army of eco-warriors are quietly pounding the pavements across the district.

Decked out in cycling helmets and light reflectors, this new breed of the planet's guardians don't live in tents or rely on solar power - but they are still doing their bit to safeguard the future of their planet.

Spurred on by their teachers and schemes to promote eco-friendly travel plans, schoolchildren are spurning their parents' cars in favour of walking and cycling to school as part of a district-wide bid to cut greenhouse gases and curb traffic around schools.

The Government has pledged to take climate change seriously and has freed up cash for school travel plans.

Bradford Council and Education Bradford have just secured a £151,985 slice of this cash to spend on the plans at three secondary schools and 21 primaries in the district.

The money will help pay for bicycle shelters, pedestrian shelters and entrances, and to set up walking and cycling buses - which involves groups of children walking and cycling together, picking up people along the way.

Foxhill Primary school, in Queensbury, already has an energetic travel plan in place and will use the £4,900 it's netted from Whitehall to build a shelter inside the school grounds for parents walking to school to collect their children.

Headteacher Andi Bleasdale said: "We have regular Walk To School weeks and the money raised is used to buy reflectors for the children to wear during the winter so they can be seen in the dark. We want the shelter for parents because we get a lot of extreme weather in Queensbury."

Encouraging children to walk to school has gone hand-in-hand with promoting road safety.

"We take every opportunity we can to instruct the children on road safety," said Mrs Bleasdale. "We get a lot of support from traffic wardens and the police. We have play crossings in school where children practise crossing the road.

"We have worked with the council and had speed cameras put up and speed restrictions imposed outside the school. A crossing was put in for the children and road safety is a regular part of the curriculum."

The school also runs a road safety club called the Foxy Club, where parents work with children to hammer home the road safety message.

At Crossflatts Primary School in Morton Lane, Bingley, the cash will pay for a shelter to add to its existing bicycle racks.

As part of its ambitious measures to encourage children to bike to school, a cycle path linking the nearby Leeds-Liverpool canal and the school has been built.

Deputy headteacher Sue Marshall said: "The children are aware of environmental damage caused by car fumes through the curriculum. The cycle racks are very viable and we hope because they are so visible to it will encourage parents and children to cycle and walk to school.

"Our cycling and walking promotions have seen an increase in the number of pupils and staff cycling to school."

The school funds cycling proficiency courses for year five pupils and the whole school is invited to join a cycling club which takes youngsters out on the road on their bikes with a trained teacher.

From September, children from the school's cluster area will be boarding an American style yellow bus as part of a scheme to transport children from several schools in the same area - helping to reduce congestion and harmful car fumes. The pilot scheme in Ilkley has already been hailed a success.

A total of 81 travel plans are now in the district's schools.

Bradford Council's school travel adviser Paul Hart said: "We are now well on the way to meeting the Government target for all schools to have travel plans by 2010.

"The plans not only help reduce congestion but they also have health benefits as they help encourage pupils to walk or cycle to school."

Education Bradford and Bradford Council has praised staff at the schools for drawing up travel plans to a high standard.

Bradford Council's executive member for the environment Coun Anne Hawkesworth, said: "It is wonderful that this money will set up 24 new travel plans which can have an impact on the environment as they help to reduce the number of cars on the road.

"It's good to see we have so many now in Bradford which in turn will boost fitness levels among youngsters."