Parents are celebrating after a County Hall U-turn over plans to scrap school crossing patrols.

Essex County Council had asked schools where there were zebra or pelican crossings nearby to stump up £5,860 for lollipop men and women.

Under the plans, any school failing to find the cash faced its patrol being axed.

Among those set to be affected was Holy Trinity School in Halstead.

The Beridge Road school admitted it would struggle to fund its crossing in Trinity Street – manned by Joan Warner.

But at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Rodney Bass, councillor responsible for highways, revealed all but seven of the county’s 48 school crossings under threat would be saved.

The seven, four of which are currently vacant, are all patrols on pelican crossings and will no longer receive council funding.

Mum-of-two Tracey Corke, of Mount Pleasant, Halstead, welcomed the re-think.

She walks her seven-year-old daughter Kiah to Holy Trinity Primary School every day and claims cars often fail to stop.

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