How the humble traffic cone is opening a world of opportunity for thousands of children - Keith Madeley

These stories use the traffic cone as the medium where children learn about the world around them.

The first two books, Meet the Cones, and Cones Make New Friends, show how the four friends Conestance, Conerad, Cone-Vera and Conen became friends, have their first brush with danger and set off on their quest to understand all about human life and behaviour.

Book three, Cones on the Rails which was published in 2017, explains to children the importance of keeping safe anywhere around railways. Particular emphasis is placed on the important instruction that children should never, under any circumstances, go onto a railway track.

Team Cones was delighted when this book won the UK Rail Industry Award for Passenger Safety in 2017.

In recent years, the books have developed into many different fields. To write book six, Cones on the Waterfront, Chris worked with BAM Nuttall. This book deals with flood alleviation and keeping safe around water.

By reading the book, children learn about the dangers around culverts, how the new weir was constructed on the river Aire in Leeds and its purpose.

They also learn how nature was a prime consideration in the building of the weir with salmon leaps and eel runs included. They also learn about the joys of walking near water, to be mindful of the danger spots – such as over-hanging grass – and respect for wildlife and the dangers of giant hogweed.

It became apparent to Chris that there other aspects of corporate life which needed to be brought to children’s attention, such as the wide variety of occupations available for people of all types and abilities and the fact that the different characteristics and talents each one of them possesses should be used to their advantage.

As the list of industries with which Chris was working increased, Team Cones sought ways to help children explore employment opportunities, and to be aware of issues such as diversity, inclusivity, social awareness, ecological factors, carbon footprint, waste management, air quality, water conservation and treatment.

She also wants each person to be aware of how they can contribute to the effort to reduce global warming and pollution.

Chris is encouraging young women to consider careers in what has been perceived as male-orientated industries, but which offer exceptional opportunities to all.

She hopes there will be many female engineers contributing to the success of our great industries.

From very humble beginnings, the Cones series has become a major educational tool which big corporate names are using to help accomplish their social value programmes.

By Keith Madeley MBE, Yorkshire businessman