PARENTS at a Kidlington primary school are calling on people to help them secure funding for a new lollipop person to protect their children at a "dangerous" crossing.

The street outside Edward Feild Primary School, in Bicester Road, has long concerned parents because of the speed at which cars race along the road each day.

Although there is a zebra crossing outside the school, there have been complaints the yellow beacons are not visible to drivers.

But now parents have decided to take action to improve the crossing by entering a national competition to win funding for a lollipop person.

Run by insurance providers Churchill, the national competition encourages people to nominate their school online, with 50 being chosen to receive a year's worth of funding and training.

One of the driving forces behind the campaign has been parent Bene George, who has two children at the school.

The Kidlington cakemaker said: "All the parents have got on board with this and we have all registered the school on the website.

"We have had many incidents of very near misses and we are finding it very difficult to get any help from anyone.

"This is a primary school and these are very young children."

Local author Jo Cotterill, whose daughter Jemima, seven, goes to the school, said: "There doesn't seem to be a week gone by without reports of a near miss from one of the children.

"What we need is a person in a high visibility jacket, and it only needs to be for about 15 minutes twice a day.

"My daughter wants to walk to school on her own but I don't know how I could ever allow that at the moment."

Chairman of governors Alan Mackenzie-Wintle said he had consulted with Oxfordshire County Council over the issue, but it has said the crossing is not considered "high-risk" enough to be considered a priority.

He added: "I implore the authorities to reconsider their stance and take some action urgently, it is only a matter of time before a serious injury occurs to one our pupils or their parents."

The county council previously said the crossing was not being treated as an immediate priority, and that zebra crossings were the natural choice for outside schools - a position which has not changed.

People have until May 16 to nominate their local primary school, and the 50 selected schools will be announced at the beginning of June.

The company will be working with local councils to select the schools which are most in need.

If funding is secured a person is chosen for the job from the local community and will begin work in September.

To nominate a school go to churchill.com/lollipoppers.