THERE is not enough money to spend on turning areas outside all Worcestershire schools into 20mph safety zones, say transport chiefs.

The installation of £6,000 flashing, interactive, solar-powered signs outside 250 schools to make roads safer is too expensive – it would cost about £1.5 million.

Barbara Wilson is headteacher at Hanley Swan St Gabriel’s with St Mary’s CE Primary School, where traffic is allowed to travel at 60mph on certain parts of Welland Road before motorists reach the 30mph limit. She said: “I think those flashing signs are so effective and £6,000 isn’t that much compared to the cost of a child’s life.”

Other major engineering works, such as speed humps, bollards or chicanes, would cost Worcestershire County Council - which is responsible for schools and roads - even more money.

The council currently needs to make £45 million savings over a three-year period.

Pilot studies introducing 20mph safety zones outside five schools in the Malvern Hills district have so far come back with mixed results but officers are keen to put up permanent advisory 20mph disc signs near 75 schools where motorists already travel slower, such as in residential areas.

At a county council overview and scrutiny performance board meeting, Dave Clee, safer roads team leader, said he thought the £6,000 signs were the most effective in getting motorists to slow down.

“These signs are the way to go outside the majority of our schools but they come at a cost,” he said.

One school which has been deemed too difficult to introduce a 20mph zone outside of it is Ombersley Endowed First School, near Droitwich.

We reported in September how parents and children are putting their lives at risk as they try to cross the busy A449, which has a limit of 70mph, to get to the school.

Headteacher Mari Jones said in the last couple of weeks a woman and her grandchildren travelling in a car were involved in a crash with a van outside the school. Nobody was hurt.

In the county’s speed management strategy more high profile signage has been earmarked for that area but Mrs Jones said, in an ideal world, she would like to see 20mph safety zones introduced outside every school across the county.

But Councillor Derek Prodger, the cabinet member for transport, said it was not the council’s policy to tackle this issue with a broad brush.

Mr Clee said numerous factors including the current layout of a road, pupil numbers, and accident statistics, are all taken into account when assessing whether a school is suitable for 20mph safety zones.

“There is no one fix all scenario,” he said. “Each site is going to be unique.”