LOLLIPOP patrols will be increased in Croydon schools in time for the next school year, the new leader of Croydon Council has promised.
In the run-up to the election Cllr Tony Newman pledged to bring back lollipop patrols to the more dangerous roads outside primary schools in the borough.
And although he told the Advertiser the council would have to look at each individual case, he added he was sure the service would be reinstated in time for September.
Last year, lollipop patrols were axed outside ten schools as part of cost-cutting measures by the council.
One of the axed lollipop ladies at Woodside Junior School, Sharon Probert, wants Cllr Newman to make sure he sticks to his election promise.
Mrs Probert, 43, of Addiscombe, said: "We want to put pressure on them to stick to their word. We voted Labour and I personally voted for them because they said they would reinstate us.
"It's not just about me, a lot of the parents at the school are worried about the roads."
Woodside Junior School, just on the fringes of Cllr Newman's Woodside ward, had lollipop ladies on busy Blackhorse Lane and Morland Road.
Woodside parent Esther Simpson carried out her own a study last June which found during the half-hour periods at the beginning and end of the school day there were considerably more cars driving along Blackhorse Lane and Morland Road both roads than pupils using the zebra crossings.
During the week-long study, in Morland Road, over the course of a week, there was an average of 198.9 pupils crossed in a half hour slot, compared to 269.5 cars. In Blackhorse Lane, there were more than three times as many cars (314.9 compared to 96 pupils).
But Cllr Newman said road safety was a priority for his administration and although he initially wouldn't "comment on individual cases", he added: "I don't think I am giving too much away if I say that [Woodside Junior School] is one of the schools with the most urgent need for lollipop patrols to be reinstated and will be high on the list of priorities."
The new council leader also said some of the axed schools had since made other arrangements and would probably not need lollipop patrols reinstated.
"We haven't got the first cabinet meeting out of the way yet but what I can say is there will be more lollipop patrols outside schools in September than there were this year."
