This morning a demonstratation of 50 kids and their parents took over the streets around Fircroft school in Tooting Bec, demanding that their local lollipop lady and man kept their jobs. The kids worked hard over a few days to make banners and placards and understood clearly the implication on their own safety of losing these essential local workers.

Local schools across London have been out in force over the last few weeks to save their lollipop ladies who are now at the front line of the cuts, being a soft target for draconian cutbacks. These people work for very little money to keep the children safe in what the councils deem dangerous spots across the boroughs. Over 30 are going in Lambeth, 45 in Wandsworth, 63 were threatened in Southwark but the kids came out on the streets and in a sudden change of heart the council backed down for another year.

Wandsworth Council will now face a sustained campaign. One of the schools parents Sadiq Kahn, the current Shadow Justice Minister, encouraged the children to keep up the pressure on the council saying that this was only the start of the campaign. The 45 Wandsworth lollipop ladies and men have been threatened with the sack in the next few weeks so the campaign is crucial and connections are being made with other local schools. Only three years ago the council decided that the traffic issues around this school were so bad that it warranted two positions, presumably the safety concerns then are the same as now. Under the Road Traffic Act 1988, local authorities have a general duty to promote road safety.

Neighbouring Lambeth council noted that it had the 1,200 accidents in a year, the third-highest rate in the capital, there the local authority is to scrap 30 crossing posts.?? Mr Prentis, the Unison union leader said the scale of the cuts being made to crossing patrols was "deeply distressing". ?"There can be no doubt that lollipop ladies and men save lives, so why are councils making these dangerous decisions?" ??Councils are suggesting using volunteers to replace them (that old Big Society one again) which is clearly not viable in the long term, with required training and insurance issues. Alternatively Wandsworth council has asked the local schools to fund the replacement lollipop ladies but of course the schools are being cut by the very same cuts