Reduction in Suffolk school crossing patrols

Lollipop patrol staff held protests opposing the proposal to abolish the service

The number of school crossing patrols in Suffolk has gone down by a third over the past year.

The Conservative-run county council reversed its proposal to abolish the service last year after criticism from opponents and staff.

The figures show there were 65 crossing patrol posts in 2011-12, compared with 91 in 2010-11.

Fourteen of the current posts are unfilled, so there are only 52 crossing staff currently working.

In 2010, Suffolk County Council proposed to abolish the school crossing service, claiming it would save £174,000 a year.

In May 2011, it was decided to keep the service and, at the time, council leader Mark Bee, said: "We have given this lifeline to school crossing patrols, because I recognised the strength of feeling out there and the pain probably wasn't worth the gain on this one."

'Massive reductions'

Sandy Martin, the leader of the Labour group on the council and a governor at Britannia Primary in Ipswich, said: "We've seen a massive reduction in the number of school crossing patrols.

"[The council] promised the crossing patrols would be safe in their hands, but actually they have done very little to recruit new patrols.

"I'm going to be jumping up and down to see if we can get the number of lollipop staff back up to the level it was."

The council said six patrolled sites have been replaced by light-controlled crossings.

Mike Mottram, road safety manager at the council, said: "As a result of the review last year we've got a service that meets the needs of children.

"[We looked] at the number of unaccompanied children crossing, the volume of traffic and assessments done by the school crossing patrol manager.

"Our main concern is to recruit for the vacant sites and we've yet to fill those and we are looking to recruit at some new sites."