WORK to make the journey to school safer for hundreds of Darlington children is nearing completion.

Safety features to reduce motorists speeding and the risk of accidents are being installed near St Bede's RC Primary School in Kingsway.

Darlington Borough Council has spent £70,000 on installing the features, which include three new parking laybys, new footpaths, a pedestrian refuge and new road markings.

The school crossing patrol site on Thompson Street East has also been moved, and safety work has been carried out at the junctions of Hercules Street, Locomotive Street, and Wylam Avenue with Thompson Street East. The latest spending will bring the council's investment in the Safer Routes to Schools programme to more than £250,000.

There were concerns that areas outside schools' gates in the town had become crowded with cars because parents were too worried to let their children walk home alone.

This had led to bad feeling among people living near schools, who often find their streets blocked with cars during peak hours.

The Safer Routes to School schemes aim to make it safer for children and their parents to walk or cycle to school and reduce car use.

Council officials also hope to turn the school run into a way of keeping fit and healthy for youngsters.

Schemes have already been completed at Cleveland Terrace, outside Abbey Infant School, Carmel Road, Hummersknott Avenue, Barton Street and Salters Lane South.

When children to return to St Bede's for the new term they will also be able to benefit from new safety features.

Nick Wallis, the council's cabinet member for Highways and Transport, said: "Road safety outside schools is a priority for the council, and we have made a great deal of progress in improving safety on the roads to schools since we began the Safer Routes programme three years ago."

The St Bede's scheme was instigated after complaints by parents about the excessive speed of traffic on Kingsway and nearby Thompson Road East.