A HEADTEACHER is urging town hall bosses to lift a controversial recruitment freeze on lollipop ladies — for the sake of his pupils' safety.

John Thorpe, head at SS Osmund and Andrew’s RC Primary School in Breightmet, hit out after learning that the school crossing patrol at his school was not being replaced due to the new policy.

Mr Thorpe says lollipop lady Alison McDonagh, who has left for another job, was crucial in keeping pupils safe.

He said: “What I am most disappointed in was that no one at highways informed me that we would not get a replacement crossing patrol.

"We have not had any road traffic collisions involving children and my greatest fear is now we will have an accident.

"I do not want anything to happen to my children — this school needs a crossing patrol.”

“This is not about attacking the council, it is about children’s safety."

But council bosses say that government cuts means they have been forced into a “difficult position” leading to a recruitment freeze being put into place. They say they are having to make savings of £43 million between 2015 and 2017.

The local authority employed 55 crossing patrols in April, 2013 — but that number now stands at 46. A crossing patrol costs the council on average between £8,000 and £9,000 a year.

Mr Thorpe added: “The road is very busy, cars are parked bumper to bumper and children and parents will have to cross between them.

"Cars can come down at some speed, and double yellow lines which we were told would be put at the junctions have never appeared, there are no traffic calming measures and it is a bus route.

“It is a dangerously busy road for children to have to cross without a crossing patrol to help them.

“Children are children and they could run out."

And he said he was so worried about not having a lollipop lady at the school that he did the job himself when Mrs McDonagh was on holiday.

He said: “I covered the crossing patrol when Alison was off and know how important the role is, but it is not feasible for me to do this every day. Everyone knows there have been cuts but a crossing patrol at the school has already been budgeted for, the authority did not know Alison was leaving — the money for a patrol is there, it has already been set aside.

“I just hope common sense prevails and people understand the situation.

“It is a vulnerable group which are being targeted by the loss of the patrol.

“There are cuts, but why not ask businesses to sponsor the crossing patrol service, and have the name of the business on the hi-vis jackets, or look again at the hours.

"The CCTV car has been here at 7.30am when there is nothing to catch — that will be costing money.”

Parent Neil Hodgkinson, whose son is in reception class at the school, is angry about the council's decision.

He said: “Maybe the council leader should get out of his office Monday morning and come and look outside the school between 8.45 and 9.00am and 3.15 and 3.30pm.”

A council spokesman said everything would be done to help increase pupils' safety in the absence of the crossing patrol.

He said: “We understand the community’s concerns but the council is in a difficult position as a result of central government cuts to council funding.

"We have spoken to the head teacher at the school and we will also be installing double yellow lines directly outside the school in the coming weeks to help the situation.

"We will also be looking at what other road safety measures we can introduce.

“Around £100m of budget reductions will have been made between 2010 and 2015, and fundamental changes within the council have been required to meet the size and scale of such reductions.

“We are not making any school crossing patrols redundant but as part of the ongoing savings we are having to make there is a recruitment freeze in place across the council.”