ROAD safety experts believe a problem of recruiting sufficient lollipop crossing patrols, has been licked.

Schools, parents and parish councillors were concerned about youngsters' safety at Eaglescliffe and Yarm, where several sites were not manned for months.

Stephen Hodgson, school crossing patrol superviser for Stockton Borough Council said: "We did have a problem in the Eaglescliffe and Yarm areas a couple of months ago but things are a lot better there now and very shortly all patrols will be covered.

"In the Stockton borough, we are actually bucking the national trend in that we are doing very well in terms of permanent posts. We are almost fully staffed where national figures show some areas have anything up to 50 per cent vacancies.

"The only problem we do encounter is recruiting temporary staff who are able to cover wide areas at short notice, and we would be interested in hearing from anyone who is available for this type of work."