A CLASS of schoolchildren are looking forward to a face-to-face meeting with their local MP to put their case for a law on wearing cycle helmets.

The Year Five pupils at St Mary’s School in Bridport wrote to West Dorset’s member of parliament Oliver Letwin as part of their project work on road safety.

They took him to task about the failure of a Private Members’ Bill, which would make it an offence for children not to wear safety equipment, like helmets, when riding their bikes on the road.

And to their delight, Mr Letwin has written a letter back to each child individually.

He says that he does not think that police time would be well spent pursuing children who were not wearing helmets when they have more urgent things to deal with – and he has also offered to come to the sch- ool to debate the matter with them.

The nine and ten-year-olds looked at the issue of road safety and general safety regarding fire and around the home.

They visited the Streetwise Safety Centre in Bournemouth and took their Cycling Proficency Test as well as conducting surveys in the school car park.

Class teacher Julie Kingston said that the children were very pleased to receive Mr Letwin’s letters and the school, on Skilling Hill Road, is now arranging for him to visit.

“It was a very good exercise in writing a real letter to a real person, instead of sending an email or a text and we are looking forward to Mr Letwin’s visit,” she added.

“And all the children who took the Cycling Proficiency Test have passed it, so they are very pleased.”