A major campaign has been launched by parents at a Shropshire primary school calling for improved road safety outside the school gates.

Parents and teachers at Ifton Heath Primary School in St Martins, near Oswestry, claim there is “an accident waiting to happen” on Overton Road outside the school because of a lack of speed bumps and a zebra crossing to help slow traffic on the approach to the school.

A group of parents were involved in a protest outside the school on Thursday during a road safety scheme by Shropshire Council aimed at showing youngsters how to cross the road safely.

School business manager Joy Higginson said: “The council had organised for its Stepping Out team to come to the school to show the children how to be good pedestrians and cross roads safely.

“A group of parents saw this as an opportunity to highlight their calls for a zebra crossing outside the school. They made a pretend zebra crossing and rolled it out near the road to show there is still a huge need for better road safety.

“It is important to say the school and the council are doing all it can to let children know about the dangers.

“The Stepping Out team from Shirehall were teaching road safety to years three and four and that is welcomed.

“But the main problem is that cars go so fast past the school that this is an accident waiting to happen.

“One child was seriously injured a few years ago and that prompted the calls for better safety.”

Shropshire councillor Steve Davenport vowed to push for the improvements.

Martin Withington, Shropshire Council’s head of transportation, said: “An initial assessment has been carried out on the B5069 Overton Road at Ifton Heath Primary School.

“Fortunately this 30mph, with an advisory limit of 20mph, section of the Overton Road currently has a good safety record, having no recorded personal injury accidents within the last three years.

“For this reason it would not receive a sufficient priority rating to be considered for funding from our highway safety scheme budget at the present.

“We also run a Safer Routes to School programme which provides funding for new infrastructure, where it can be shown to be a priority in terms of increasing sustainable travel.”

He said the council was working towards a crossing but funds are not yet available.