MOTHERS with young children fear they are risking their lives walking to and from school because they are forced to use a dangerous stretch of road.

Governors, parents and the head teacher at Gurney Pease Primary School, in Dodsworth Street, Darlington, are calling on councillors to improve road safety in the area.

Claire Baines, who has a seven-week-old baby, Millie, and another daughter, Sophie, five, said she puts herself and her children in danger every time she walks along Cleveland Street to the school.

She said the footpath ends abruptly and pedestrians have to go up and down a set of steep steps.

But for people with pushchairs, or those in wheelchairs, it is impossible to use the steps and instead they are forced to go on the road.

"It is a bad road and very dangerous - someone could easily be hit by a vehicle," said Miss Baines, 26, who lives in the Denes and is a parent governor at the school.

Darlington Borough Council's highways department carried out a traffic survey on the road earlier this month, measuring pedestrian numbers and vehicle speed over a 12-hour period.

A Darlington council spokeswoman said: "It found that speeding was not an issue, with more than 85 per cent of cars travelling within the 30mph limit.

"Of the 120 pedestrians recorded, most used the footpath and only a small number of people walked along the road."

But council officers will be assessing the issue further and deciding what steps could be taken to improve matters, she said.

Gurney Pease headteacher Sandra Battensby confirmed that the school was negotiating with the council, but felt not enough was being done to tackle the problem.

"The road is busy and by having to walk on it people are taking their lives into their own hands," she said.

"The council did a traffic survey on a rainy day and did not get an accurate measure of how well that road is used.

"It is worth doing something about - these are the lives of children and parents we are talking about, and people only get one chance."