SAFETY experts have welcomed moves to cut the risk for children travelling on school transport.

New contracts being brought in by Darlington Borough Council will ensure that all vehicles used by primary school youngsters will be fitted with seatbelts.

The change will come into force from September next year, following North Yorkshire County Council's decision to switch to seatbelt-only vehicles, and represents another major victory for The Northern Echo's School Seatbelt Scandal campaign.

It will leave just four local authorities in the North-East and North Yorkshire for whom providing seatbelts is not a condition of a contract to take children to and from school.

A Darlington council spokesman said the move to seatbelt-only vehicles would happen as contracts were renewed and was part of a review of school transport.

He said: "Getting primary schoolchildren to school safely is important and it is appropriate for us to look at seatbelts as part of that."

He said belts were fitted on vehicles on four of the council's five school routes and, from September next year would be introduced on the fifth, taking children from Sadberge and Middleton St George to St Augustine's, in Darlington.

The change to seatbelt-only vehicles will not cost the authority any more than the existing contract, he said.

A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said that it applauded Darlington's decision.

He said: "Our ideal is to have a seatbelt on every seat that is safe and we welcome local authorities taking this step.

"I hope parents in those areas where seatbelts are not available will put pressure on local authorities to make sure their children get the same level of service."

Darlington's decision means Durham, Hartlepool, Stockton and York are the only local authorities which do not insist on seatbelts for vehicles on primary school routes.

A Durham County Council spokesman said only about 200 of the 2,500 primary children who use school transport did not use vehicles fitted with seatbelts. But he said there were no plans to ensure buses with seatbelts were used for these children.

A York City Council spokesman said it had no plans to force operators to supply contract buses with seatbelts.

Stockton and Hartlepool borough councils both said they were reviewing their school transport provision.

Read more about the School Seatbelt Scandal here.