OUTSIDE the shops in Strensall's Barley Rise, a group of excited children are waiting for the school bus. They're chatting and giggling, some of the younger ones standing close to childminder Wendy Whitely for reassurance.

Before long, the 'bus' arrives. The children stare curiously: because this is no ordinary bus. It is city council road safety officer Ken Spence, armed with a bagful of flourescent bibs and a hand-pushed cart.

He hands out the bibs, each bearing a number - and there is a moment of confusion as the children put them on. "Who wants number two?" he asks. "I can't find number one."

Some of the youngsters are struggling with big bags. "Anyone want to put their bag in here?" Ken asks, indicating the trailer. Gleefully, several do.

This is York's first-ever official 'walking bus'. These youngsters are meeting to walk the half mile or so to Robert Wilkinson Primary School to mark international Walk To School Day: with parent 'wardens' to watch over them.

But this is much more than just a one-off stunt. Robert Wilkinson head teacher Peter Feasby hopes it could become a regular morning 'service': with the 'bus' leaving Barley Rise at 8.35am each school day and stopping along the route to pick up more children.

Eventually, he says, he'd like to see several such routes leaving from different points in Strensall and converging on the school.

"Anything that gets children on their feet, taking a bit of exercise, getting some fresh air, has got to be a good thing," he says.

Getting children to school is becoming an increasing problem right across the city. More and more parents are driving their children: and that means roads outside school gates are often choked and snarled up with traffic mornings and afternoons.

It can be a real headache for residents living nearby: and it's also potentially dangerous for the children themselves. With so many cars arriving, parking and pulling away, there has to be a potential risk of a child running out between cars and being hit.

Ironically, says Ken Spence, it's the danger caused by the number of cars outside school gates that is a major factor in making many parents drive their children to school.

"People say, I have to drive my children to school because it is so dangerous outside the school gates," he said.

Breaking that cycle, and finding safer alternative ways of getting children to school, is not easy, though.

Keith Hartland, Ken Spence's colleague in the council's road safety office, says that two thirds of all parents who drop their children off at school have driven from less than a mile away.

"I was with one head outside the school gates, and he nudged me and said 'look'. A car reversed out of a drive just down the road, came and dropped a child off, drove to the end of the road, turned round and went back to the house again," he said. "And that sort of thing is going on a lot."

To be fair to parents, it isn't simply laziness or lack of time that is making them drive their children to school. It is, above all, concern for their children's safety.

One of the great advantages of the Walking Bus - which Ken hopes can eventually be extended to other primary schools across the city - is that parents know their children are being looked after by at least two responsible adults: and that they will arrive safely.

That, says Mark Barnett, head teacher of Westfield Junior School in Acomb and chairman of York Safer Schools, could be a key factor if the idea is to take off across the city.

"Parents do worry, of course. They need to know that their children have arrived at school safely. From that point of view, the walking bus is great."

The Strensall youngsters clearly thought so. Ten-year-old Oliver Wilkinson, who was proudly pushing the trailer with other children's bags in, said: "I like walking. You don't get stuck in traffic jams and it gives me a chance to talk to my friends."

Childminder Wendy was enthusiastic, too. Exercise was just one of the benefits of the scheme, she said. It also gave children a chance to chat - to each-other, and to a responsible, trusted adult.

"If they have a problem, it gives children a chance to talk about it," she said.

"If you just jump them in the car and rush them to school, there isn't that chance."

Another benefit of the scheme, says Keith Hartland, is that by walking to school in an orderly way and accompanied by a responsible adult, children can learn about road safety. Many children only began walking to school when they went to secondary school, he said: and because they'd always been driven, they knew nothing about road safety. "So the number of incidents tends to go up dramatically when children transfer from primary to secondary school."

At the gates of Robert Wilkinson, a parking bay is choked with stationary cars, and the road is partly blocked. Even so it isn't, admits head teacher Mr Feasby, as bad as on many days.

Mums are gathered in front of the school chatting, having dropped off their children safely.

"It's a marvellous idea!" says Janet Edwards, who admits she's driven her daughter Beth to the school, but only because she was giving other parents' children a lift too.

"Most days I walk," she says. "I really hope this takes off."

To make that happen, what the city council needs is parents who will volunteer to join a rota for their school of people willing to act as walking bus 'wardens'.

"We know that there are parents who do walk their children to school," says Ken Spence. "It's really just a question of organising that into a rota."

The council is willing to back parents keen to set up a 'walking bus' for their primary school.

They are offering training, and will make sure fluorescent bibs and a trailer (which can be pulled by a bike, and can carry up to two infants if a parent has children who are too small to walk) are available for each 'service'.

Walking bus services will also be covered by council insurance, just in case anything goes wrong.

Ken Spence says that by next summer, he'd like to see walking bus schemes at up to ten local primary schools.

It's an ambitious target: but coupled with other measures such as encouraging parents to cycle to school with their children and cracking down on cars parked on yellow lines outside schools (80,000 warning leaflets were delivered to households this week) it could help to solve the morning traffic scrum outside York's schools.

If you're a parent keen to set up a walking bus service at your school, contact the council's road safety team on 01904 551331.