School crossing patrols will no longer be considered as part of a new round of budget cuts - councillors at Cambridgeshire County Council decided today (Tuesday).

Members of the highways and community infrastructure committee voted to remove patrol staff, known widely as lollipop ladies, from a list of budget savings proposals to be recommended to general purposes committee.

Councillors felt, after receiving feedback from schools and community groups, it was important to keep the service.

Cllr Roger Hickford, chairman of the committee, said: “In October last year, the county council announced the extent of the financial challenge it faced in order to balance the budget for 2016/17.

“Since then councillors as well as communities across the county have had their chance to evaluate, discuss and debate the range of proposals which have been put forward.

“This has been a difficult process as we have sought to balance the needs of residents with the demands of our financial situation.

“During this time we have heard from many groups offering to help to cover the cost of some of the services which were being proposed as a saving. One such example has been school crossing patrols where there has been interest from parish councils, community groups and schools to help .save their local lollipop lady or man.

We need time to consider this and get it right, and so we agreed today to remove school crossing patrols from our budget savings proposals. This is just one example of how members have listened to our residents to keep a service which is a vital part of their community.”