As parents of children attending the European School in Uccle, we are concerned about the negative impact of vehicle exhaust gases on our children’s health and the environment. This year, more and more of us are bringing/collecting our children to school by bicycle, yet unfortunately cycling infrastructure in and around the European school is still cruelly lacking.

In that context, we would like to ask the school direction to take appropriate measures to facilitate and encourage active mobility of parents and children, as well as to reduce air pollution levels our children are exposed to. Specifically, we ask for the following measures be considered:

Bicycle infrastructure:

• Increase the number of parking spots for bikes within the school and provide sheltered parking whenever possible
• Install bicycle hoop racks in front of the school for parents picking up their children
• Keep the "bike-gate" on the chaussée de waterloo side open until school end (currently the gate next to the bicycle parking is only open at very specific time points and forces cyclists and pedestrians to do quite a detour to get out, often going up to the vert-chasseur gate)
• Work with local authorities to improve bicycle access to and from the school. At least one of the gates must be accessible via a secure cycling path and must provide connections to existing bicycle routes, such as the bois de la cambre and avenue de Fré. We ask that special consideration is given to children safety and that infrastructure is planned in such a way that it is suitable for young children to use.

Air quality improvements:

• Install air quality monitoring on the school area and communicate results with parents on a regular basis
• Reflect on possible actions and develop a strategy to improve air quality within the school
• Support the APEEE in actions aimed at improving air quality within the school, such as:
  - Implementing a progressive renewal of the school bus fleet towards zero emission bus fleet in 2025
  - Finding alternatives to the bus parking that is currently taking place in front of the maternelle playground, which, beyond dangerously affecting the air children breathe, also presents a serious safety hazard