CAMPAIGNERS for road safety measures to stop more children being killed, expressed relief last night at a council's plan to make them permanent.

But those against the temporary restrictions have taken up their fight with the ombudsman to have them abolished .

Following a protest by angry parents living on Middlesbrough's Easterside Estate, councillors drew up plans to introduce traffic-calming measures to restrict access to Broadwell Road and Saltersgill Avenue.

The move came after 22 accidents, seven of which involved children, were reported in the area, which is used as a thoroughfare to three primary schools.

In March last year, an experimental prohibition of traffic order was introduced, banning through traffic from the estate, and speed humps were constructed.

The success of the measures in reducing accidents was carefully monitored by council officers, who recorded only five incidents in the first seven months of their operation.

Now they are recommending that a permanent traffic order be made to allow the restrictions to be retained.

Lynn Nellist, whose nephew Daniel was knocked down outside Easterside Primary School, said she was delighted by the proposal.

"I think it's great idea," she said "At the end of the day, children on the Easterside Estate now get to school much more safely."

As part of the council's survey into the scheme's effectiveness, local people's views were sought.

In a report to its members, Brian Glover Middlesbrough's head of transport and design services concluded: "While the reaction to the experimental order is somewhat mixed, the majority of those who replied were in favour of its continuation."

But this view is disputed by members of a pressure group set up to campaign against the measures.

One of its members, who did not want to be named, said she was outraged at the recommendation to make them permanent.

"I'm disgusted," she said "We organised a petition earlier this year and surveyed about 600 houses on the Easterside Estate. About 550 were against the restrictions, as people can't understand why their journeys should be made longer, or why they should have to pay more in petrol.