A campaigner fighting to save a school crossing patrol has backed a new report warning that cuts to council road safety budgets could drive up casualties.

Mum-of-three, Liz Howard, said Dorset County Council’s targeted savings of £200,000 a year from lollipop salaries would be dwarfed by the cost of a death or serious injury.

Three schools in Blandford – including two primary schools – and two schools in Shaftesbury could be among those who lose their crossing guards if the cuts go ahead.

A report from the Parliamentary Advisory Councils for Transport Safety (Pacts) said some councils had cut road safety engineering by 60-80 per cent, as well as switching off speed cameras, cutting lollipop budgets and road safety education programmes.

Mrs Howard said: “One of the things that DCC is most proud of is the fact that no children have been killed on their roads since 2006, so to me cutting the money for the school crossing patrols just doesn’t make sense,” she said.

“If a child is killed it would obviously have a devastating impact on the family, but if a child was seriously injured the cost of their long term care would dwarf the £200,000 a year the council is trying to save from the crossing patrols,” she said.

Dorset County Council is bidding to save nearly £3.3m from its highways and transport budget by 2013/14 in the face of unprecedented funding cuts from central government.

But cabinet member for highways, Cllr Peter Finney, insisted the council was fighting to maintain road safety initiatives, despite reducing it contribution to the Dorset Safety Camera Partnership by £375,000.

“We still have our No Excuses campaign which we are responsible for, which is our key strategy to reduce the number of deaths and serious accidents in the county.

“This initiative does run out at the end of March, but we hope to continue it.

“We are trying to seek alternative funding streams for crossing patrols.

“Every time we have a serious accident, it is invariably due to driver error.”

Former transport minister and Christchurch MP Chris Chope said: “Councils should look carefully at how these budgets are spent and if they are thinking of changing the funding they should look at alternatives.”