FOLLOWING an accident involving a primary school pupil hit by a car while walking to school West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin is convening a meeting to see if a solution can be found to improve road safety.

Dawn Hughes started a campaign for a pedestrian crossing on Clay Lane, Beaminster, when her son, Archie, was taken to hospital after the collision.

Her calls came after Beaminster Town Council’s appeal for a crossing was rejected by Dorset County Council. Now parents from Beaminster St Mary’s Academy have set up a petition and are campaigning for “a joined up approach to children’s road safety”.

Mr Letwin said no date had been set yet for the meeting.

He added: "There is clearly a serious issue here. We can't simply ignore the safety of children on their way to school. I hope that I will be able to help forge a consensus on some feasible way of increasing safety in the vicinity of St Mary's."

At Monday's meeting of the town council's finance and general purposes councillors discussed whether they'd be willing to fund either a school crossing patrol or a zebra crossing.

Cllr Christopher Turner said there were pros and cons to a school crossing patrol - the pros were that the lollipop person would dictate where the crossing was but the cons were that the service would only operate in term time and would involve the council in on-going costs of around £3,500 a year.

Cllr Janet Page said: "Of course it is not just the children. There are other people wanting to go across the road with St Mary's Garden there there are quite a number of elderly people who want to cross the road."

She also said there was the added complication that it was a slightly unusual site with two possible pinch points where people might cross.

She said: "It didn't meet the criteria for a crossing but this is another complication that you have two potential crossing points and which one do you regulate? And how effective is it going to be?"

Although councillors were in general in favour of contributing to a zebra crossing, which would be a one-off payment, they decided to wait to make a decision on the outcome of Oliver Letwin's meeting with St Mary's head teacher, governors, Dorset Council Council officials, parents and representatives of the town council

Cllr Chris Baker sounded a note of caution saying that if the council paid it would allow other people effectively not to pick up the mantle and do what is right.

Cllr Turner added: "It might be an inducement to the county council if we put money in."