We want our children to be able to walk to school but we know how difficult that journey can be.  Not only does your child need some road safety awareness but there's also worries about pavement parking, speeding drivers and safe places to cross.

Thankfully for many school children across Staffordshire, there are school crossing patrols, making challenging roads, easier for children and parents to use.  These patrols came under threat when Staffordshire County Council sought to make savings.  School patrols are not a statutory service and so when looking to make savings, it is the extras the team look to cut back on, rather than making cuts to core services.

However the school crossing services were well used, keep children save and are loved by the community.  I liaised with the Chief Executive of Staffordshire County Council and the highways team on this issue.  Your local County Councillors also put the pressure on and I am pleased to say the crossing facilities have been saved.

Thank you to all residents who wrote to me with their experiences of school crossing patrols and helped me escalate this issue.

I continue to raise school transport issues with the relevant bodies, be it buses and affordability for students, speeding and irresponsible parking near schools and of course what can be done to keep our youth fit, healthy and able to walk to school.