A PAIR of North-East car dealers have come up with a novel way to stay safe in traffic – by walking to work dressed as traffic cones.

Paul Walker and Steve Jones will be walking into work at RMB Auto, in Darlington, on Friday as part of International Walk to Work Day.

The aim of the walk is to raise money for Butterwick Hospice Care, but things took an unexpected turn when Mr Walker received an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“We’d raised about £100, when someone said they would double their donation if we did it in fancy dress. So now we’ll be walking to work dressed as traffic cones,” he said.

Mr Walker had two traffic cone costumes left over from a friend’s stag party in Southport and managed to persuade his colleague that wearing them would be a good idea.

He said: “We quickly saw the benefit of it. We’ll have to walk along the grass verge on busy roads, so at least we’ll be much more visible to cars now. After all, drivers are used to avoiding cones on the road.”

The pair will be walking the 11 miles into their workplace from Mr Walker’s home in Norton, and expect to take about four hours.

So far, they have raised £305 to support the work of Butterwick Hospice.

Mr Walker said: “We originally said if we could get £10 a mile, we’d be happy, but the response has been fantastic.

“Now we’ve broken our initial target, we really want to see if we can raise £500, or even £1,000 towards the incredible work the Butterwick Hospice does.

“We’ve agreed that if we get to £500, we’ll keep the cones on all day. I’ve got a couple of spares if we need to get changed and, if we get to £1000, we’ll walk home in them too.”

Mr Walker became a trustee for Butterwick Hospice in December and, after being inspired by the "amazing" work of the charity, he wanted to make a personal contribution.

Jo Wallis, head of marketing and fundraising at Butterwick Hospice, said: “It’s certainly one of the more unusual ways of raising money we’ve come across. It’s a fantastic gesture and we hope they get lots of support.”

Anyone who would like to support Paul and Steve’s fundraising can donate by visiting RMB Toyota on Facebook, or at RMB Toyota on Yarm Road, Darlington.