CAMPAIGNERS fighting the possible loss of school crossing patrols have been busy counting how many people use their lollipop lady.

After seeing a council worker monitoring part of her shift on Church Road, mums Liz Howard and Liz Norman decided to carry out their own traffic survey for the full 45 minute slot.

In a morning, 105 children used the patrol to cross the road. Seven were on a bike and 16 walked with an adult.

In the afternoon, 135 children were helped across and only nine were accompanied. A total of 46 adults without children crossed with the lollipop lady, and 803 cars crossed her path in the morning and 811 in the afternoon.

Mrs Howard said: “Ferndown Town Council have agreed to the need for a crossing here in the past and our figures really warrant having one.

“If we see 800 cars in 45 minutes, that’s about 20 cars a minute, which is one car every three seconds. I wouldn’t like to have to cross that road without a lollipop lady. We need something.”

The mums, supported by Ferndown Town council’s traffic working party, are being urged to keep up the fight. A recent BBC report of a county council cabinet member pledging to save the service sparked hopes of a U-turn, but the policy has not changed and the public consultation continues.

“It sounds to me as though the county council thought people would rush to do this job,” Mrs Howard added.

“Because they haven’t, the council are getting a bit jumpy about it. We need to stick to our guns.”

If funding is cut, they hope to fundraise for a fixed crossing.

Ferndown Upper School has already said it will not put school funds towards lollipop pay.

Ferndown PACT panel are imposing a trial no parking area along Mountbatten Drive to improve the flow of traffic.

The Wimborne Road crossing will be surveyed next Thursday.