LOLLIPOP crossing patrols are doomed at seven primary schools because road safety chiefs say too few children use them.
Pinchbeck East is the first school to lose its lollipop patrol – but another six will almost certainly follow suit the moment their lollipop man or woman leaves their current post.
Schools in the firing line are Spalding Parish Church of England Day School, Spalding Primary, St John’s Primary and St Paul’s Primary, both in Spalding, South View Primary in Crowland and Wyberton Primary.
Greville Burgess, from Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership, said: “These schools all have full-time crossing patrol supervisors at the moment, but if any of them were to leave it is unlikely that we would fill the post.
“It’s a case of encouraging people to use the crossings or lose them.”
He said Government criteria for school crossing patrols includes things like the number of children using them, the flow of vehicles and the width of the road – Pinchbeck East falls short on numbers of children.
Mr Burgess, the partnership’s principal road safety coordinator, said: “What the county council is encouraging is for more children to walk and cycle to school as opposed to going in cars.”
He said if collisions outside schools was the sole crossing criteria, Lincolnshire would be looking to cut the current lollipop patrols by 70 per cent.