A PUBLIC meeting will be held in January to find ways of reducing traffic and improving child safety at Carlton Miniott primary school.

The head teacher, Mrs Kath Greaves, says part of the problem is caused by the school's success. Pupils at the school travel on average three times further to get there, compared with those going to other local schools.

After a meeting in the summer, organised by the parish council to discuss the traffic problems, the county council carried out a survey completed by 117 of the 120 families at the school.

This revealed that pupils travel an average of 3.25 miles to school, and 67pc arrive by car. This compares to an average distance of 0.9 miles travelled by pupils to Sowerby primary school, where 12pc use cars.

Mrs Greaves, told this week's Carlton Miniott Parish Council meeting that many pupils travelled from outlying villages and even from Northallerton to attend.

"It's going to be very, very difficult for us to reduce the number of cars coming to the school, because it's a very successful school offering good quality education and so people and children come from outside the catchment area," she said.

Since the first meeting in the summer, the governors have met to discuss a number of the proposals, including ways of changing the school grounds to accommodate parents collecting and dropping off children.

Mrs Greaves said that on the whole the governors did not feel these proposals could work without compromising the safety of the children.

They did, however, feel a piece of private land near Carlton Lodge could be suitable for parking. Parents could leave their cars there and walk their children to school, to reduce the traffic at the school.

There were calls for the parish council to look into this more closely, but members said it was not their sole responsibility and that the involvement and agreement of the community was needed to take any proposals forward.

The chairman, Coun Janet Watson, said: "We are trying to solve the problem not in the short term, but in the long term and there is a lot to consider."

Mr Geoff Gardner from the county council added that the government's aim was to reduce the number of cars on the roads, so schemes to increase parking were out of favour and unlikely to receive funding.

The speed of traffic in the village was another concern, but Mr Eddie Haywood, from North Yorkshire highways, said traffic-calming measures introduced in 1998 had reduced speeds from 46mph to 24mph. There had been no accidents causing injury since their introduction.

The meeting wanted Mr Haywood to look into the possibility of a 20mph limit near the school.

He said: "There is great difficulty in justifying more traffic-calming measures when the ones we introduced seem to have stopped any accidents.

"We could justify traffic calming to enforce a 20mph speed limit, but apart from that it's going to be very difficult. Other villages haven't any traffic calming, where accidents are happening, and they're the priority."

Other proposals to be looked into for easing congestion at the school included car sharing, using existing bus services travelling to other local schools, and improving footpaths.

Parents, teachers and members of the public are invited to attend the meeting at the school on Tuesday, January 9, 7pm, when solutions to the problems will be discussed.