CHILDREN have asked local councillors for their support in trying to improve road safety outside their school in Wellington.

Pupils from St John’s Primary School in Priory attended Wellington Town Council’s economic development committee on June 11 and gave a presentation about their concerns about speeding traffic and the obvious dangers to pedestrians when trying to cross the busy High Street and Taunton Road.

Teachers Sarah Brown and Lizzie Allen were also in attendance and they both echoed the views of the children.

The Year Five pupils said that lowering the speed limit from 30mph down to 20mph would be “crucial” and would save lives and help everyone in the community, not just schoolchildren.

“Please make the road safer for young people and our families,” they asked the town councillors.

A school crossing patrol is used to help people across the road for 30 minutes each morning and afternoon, but he has come face to face with a number of dangerous incidents involving speeding motorists – including being in a collision with a vehicle on two occasions.

The children had spoken with the patrol crossing who told them about the hazards faced in getting people across the road safely.

Along with the presentation, pupils had already submitted nearly 50 letters asking for the town council to support their campaign to get the speed limit reduced from 30mph to 20mph.

Councillors were impressed by the children’s presentation and if there is one thing which stirs the conscience of adults it is when young people tell them the hard and brutal facts – lives are being put at risk in that part of Wellington because of the speed of traffic.

Cllr Steve Mercer said: “It is important that we keep traffic calm by schools and lowering the speed limit by 10mph could make a huge amount of difference in safety and saving lives. Going down from 30mph to 20mph means you have more responsive time.”

Hopes of getting anything done to improve safety by the school rests with Somerset Council as it is responsible for highways.

But town councillors said that previous attempts at getting an actual pedestrian crossing installed in that location in Wellington had fallen on deaf ears.

Cllr Andy Govier said: “If we can’t get a crossing there, perhaps we can get better signage and road markings put in to help with safety.”

Cllr John Thorne said the St John’s pupils had their full support and were “preaching to the converted.”

“We all well aware of the problems in that area,” he said. “We don’t have the legal ability to do anything ourselves, but we have to go to Somerset Council who have the powers, but they don’t have the money.

“We are very conscious of the issues and we have done all we can in the past, but we haven’t got anywhere.”

Councillors agreed to meet with school officials to discuss the problems in more detail on an informal basis, but also write to the highways department to see what could be done.