WORRIED mums at a Coulsdon primary school are calling for more to be done to protect their children from a busy main road.
Chipstead Valley Primary School's lollipop man has not been replaced since he retired last summer and the mums say heavy traffic on the Chipstead Valley Road outside the school is putting their children at risk.
There are plans to install a crossing outside the school, but the some parents say it has taken far too long and have called for the council to act faster to help protect their children.
Mum Annie Robinson said there had been several near misses with children in the past few months, including one involving her seven-year-old son Tommy who narrowly avoided being clipped by the wing mirror of a white van which mounted the pavement.
"It's really dangerous," she said. "Drivers get fed up of waiting in traffic and drive over the pavement, and plenty speed too."
Tommy said the near miss with the van had made him scared of riding his scooter to school.
Zoe Larkman, whose sons Ethan, five, and Lewis, seven, attend the school said Croydon Council needed to "take some responsibility" for safety on the pavements.
"We need something in the interim to keep the children safe," she said. "We've just been told 'be more careful'.
"It's like we're at the mercy of a bunch of people sitting round a table drinking coffee in a committee room.
"It just seems that the only thing that will get something done quicker is a fatality."
The council's traffic management cabinet committee is due to consider proposals for a zebra crossing outside the school near Sandown Road later this month, and if passed a crossing could be in place by the autumn.
However, any objection from residents, who must be consulted, on the crossing, could derail the plans.
There were also plans under the council's previous Conservative administration to reduce the speed limit along the stretch of the road outside the school to 20 mph, but it such a limit has been difficult to implement due to the school's being on the border between Croydon and Surrey County Council.
Responding to the parents, a council spokesman said: "The council is very aware of the parents' concerns, and is doing all it can to expedite matters and will try to install a pedestrian crossing as soon as possible."
