LOLLIPOP men and women are being sent into the classroom in a bid to teach children about the dangers of the roads.

It is hoped children will heed more advice about road safety if it comes from friendly faces which help them get to school safely every day.

Blackburn with Darwen Council got permission to start using the crossing patrol staff, after renewing its contract with Lancashire County Council, which provides the service to the unitary authority.

The county council has also been told to provide regular reports on crossings which have no staff cover.

If need be, Blackburn with Darwen Council will try and place its own staff there as a short-term measure.

It will also continue to review the location of crossing patrols, to see if they are in the most effective places.

Coun Andy Kay, executive member for regeneration, confirmed that the school patrol staff would be asked into the classroom. He added: "We challenged the provision of the SCP service to determine how it was delivered and examine whether an in-house service would give us greater benefit.

"Our investigations found the main parts of the service were OK so we have focused on the points we found needed improvement - these were things such as monitoring procedures and

information exchange.

"These changes have now been implemented and the service provider will remain unchanged."

Reducing the number of child casualties on Blackburn with Darwen's roads has become one of the council's top priorities since it signed a public service agreement with the government in 2001.

Among the targets set by the Government was the reduction of child casualties by 75 per cent over four years, bringing the number down from 36 to just nine.

If it meets the target, the council will get extra cash. It has outlined how it intends to spend more than £2million of its transport cash putting in traffic-calming measures in the worst areas.