YOUNG children on Teesside are to receive a road safety training course, thanks to a cash boost from the Government.

Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland borough councils announced yesterday that they had each received £30,000 from the Government to pilot a three-year scheme, which has already been a success in Scotland.

The Kerb Craft initiative will focus on five and six-year-old children in ten primary schools in the Eston, South Bank and Grangetown areas of Redcar and Cleveland, and at schools across Middlesbrough.

It will teach the youngsters to recognise safe and dangerous roads, how to cross safely at parked cars, and crossing safely near junctions.

The training will be done by the side of roads near the schools, so that the youngsters can experience first-hand the potential dangers.

There will be two children to each coordinator and it should take about 16 30-minute sessions for the pupils to complete the course.

Once each child has completed the course, at their own pace, he or she will be presented with a certificate which recognises their ach-ievements.

Mike Hall, road safety officer with Redcar and Cleveland council, said yesterday: "We are delighted that it has been successful, and we are convinced it will be a big benefit.

"The money will fund a Kerb Craft instructor for three years and that person will pass on the knowledge to volunteers at the schools for them to be instructors, too.

"We already do road safety training for young children, but this way we will be able to do it with an instructor."

He said that the money would fund a coordinator, who would look for volunteers among parents and support staff at the school, who they could train to pass on the vital skills to children.

Mr Hall said the schools had been chosen because a pre-requisite of the funding bid was that schools in socially-deprived areas should be targeted.

It follows research that provided evidence of a link between poverty and the number of accidents involving children.

Mr Hall said that if more money became available, then the scheme would be extended across all the borough's primary schools.