Read the following extract from a local newspaper article.

The sponsored walk that forgot to leave room for walking

Priya Khan

At 9.15 on Saturday morning, the town centre looked as if someone had tipped a costume cupboard into the road. Six hundred pupils, dressed as detectives, dragons and storybook queens, streamed past the market square while teachers hurried behind them carrying clipboards and expressions of growing alarm.

Riverside School had advertised its sponsored walk as a “cheerful river of readers” raising money for a new reading room. For the first few minutes, that description seemed accurate. Shopkeepers waved from their doorways, younger children showed off their costumes and volunteers handed out bottles of water. Then the river stopped moving.

By 9.30, pupils filled the crossing outside the bus station. Cars could not enter the high street, three buses were unable to leave and a delivery van remained beside the same bench for nearly an hour. One resident described the crowd as “a human cork in the middle of the town”.

The school had agreed that walkers would leave in groups of 50 at ten-minute intervals. However, when rain was forecast for the afternoon, organisers sent all the pupils out together. The event website continued to describe the route as “carefully planned”, even as teachers used cardboard signs to direct children around stationary traffic.

“It was carefully planned if the plan was to misplace an entire town,” said café owner Lena Ward, who watched customers turn away because they could not cross the road.

There were genuine achievements. The pupils completed an eight-kilometre route and raised £4,200. Dozens of parents gave up their Saturday to supervise, and the final walkers reached the school field before the rain began. Photographs posted later showed smiling children receiving medals beneath a banner that read: “Every Step Counts.”

Yet the steps taken through public flower beds also counted. According to the council, temporary barriers were moved from their approved positions, leaving walkers to search for shorter routes. Several planted areas were damaged, litter had to be cleared from side streets and bus services were disrupted for more than two hours. The council estimated that cleaning and repairs would cost £4,800, more than the amount raised by the walk.

The headteacher apologised for what she called “unexpected congestion” and said lessons would be learned before another large event was held. Council officers, however, stated that the agreed timetable would have prevented most of the disruption.

For nine-year-old Sam, the walk remained a success. “The best bit was when all the cars beeped at us,” he said. “It sounded like they were cheering.”

For those waiting behind the barriers, the horns sounded less like applause than a warning.