TRANSPORT bosses have agreed to review the speed limit on a Poole road where a seven-year-old boy died last year.

Thousands of people backed calls for safety improvements on Canford Heath's Sherborn Crescent after young Toby William Jefferson-Peters died following a collision with a car in October 2016.

Borough of Poole's (BOP) Transport Advisory Group (TAG) members met, last week, and agreed to pass on the petition - supported by 3,083 people - to the Dorset Road Policing Unit

TAG members also agreed to consider making the area around Ad Astra Infant School a 20mph zone, and to review the current 30mph speed limit on the remainder of Sherborn Crescent and Canford Heath Road.

Ward councillor Sandra Moore, who spoke at the TAG meting, told the Daily Echo: "The members were very helpful and supportive. Obviously they want to do all they can to improve safety for residents living in Sherborn Crescent.

"There have been a lot of accidents, they haven't been related to any one thing in particular, there are just a high number of people living off Sherborn Crescent."

The online petition, created by Poole resident Claire James, called for speed cameras, chicanes and speed humps, on Sherborn Crescent.

Claire said: "Two children have been hit by cars and there have been so many near misses.

"The council have been contacted but apparently their response was ‘it is either the child’s fault, or the driver’s fault. We do not have the money to put anything on that road’. This is outrageous."

However, initial investigations into the fatal crash suggested speed and the road layout were not factors in the accident. An official inquest into the accident is likely to be held by the Dorset Coroner later this year.

A BOP report to TAG members, ahead of their last meeting, stated the fatal accident could not reasonably have been foreseen and "there is not a significant speeding problem in this road that would warrant further intervention."

Introducing speed humps, cameras and chicanes were not recommended as a viable option at the TAG meeting. However, members agreed to consider the 20mph zone and look into reviewing speed limits, with a report coming back to the committee at a later date.