WORK has begun on installing a zebra crossing in Cookley to provide a safer route to school for pupils in the village.

It will be located between Lea Lane and Austcliffe Road, near Cookley Sebright Endowed First School, and is expected to be completed by the middle of next month.

The £60,000 scheme will also include zebra crossing warning signs and road markings, as well as the expansion of the existing school keep clear road markings across the rear entrance to the school car park.

While engineers from Worc-estershire Highways are carrying out the work, Castle Road will be temporarily closed from the junction at Lea Lane for 45 metres on Sunday and April 2.

The scheme is part of the nationwide Government initiative - Safer Routes to School - and aims to reduce the need to travel to school by car.