PARENTS have been told their children must cross a busy road without a school-crossing patrol for the foreseeable future.

Parents of children at Corporation Road Junior and Infant schools in Darlington have been told there is no-one to replace the regular warden, who is ill.

Darlington Borough Council has said it does not know when the warden will be able to return to work and it cannot guarantee when another crossing patrol will take over her duties.

This means parents will have to see their children across Corporation Road until another warden can be found.

But that has angered parents, who say it is too dangerous for children to cross the road without help. One parent, Shaun Madderson, said: "I think it should be a priority of the council to make sure busy roads have crossing patrols on them.

"A lot of children, of all ages, cross that road and if there isn't a warden to stop the traffic I can imagine someone will get hurt or even killed.

"Parents can walk with their children, but they can't stop the traffic and when there are so many people milling about that is what is needed."

A spokeswoman for Darlington Borough Council said that a team of reserve crossing wardens were already working elsewhere in the town to cover roads which had been left without patrols.

She said: "It is not the council's statutory duty to provide school crossing patrols and we would say it is ultimately the parents' responsibility to make sure their children are safe getting to and from school.

"But where we do provide the service, we always try to provide a replacement if someone can't complete their duties. In this case, the lady from Corporation Road is just too ill to work and our replacement wardens have already been deployed elsewhere in the town."

The spokeswoman said there were always vacancies for crossing patrol wardens in Darlington and the job was open to any adult up to 75.

Anyone interested in finding out more can call (01325) 388783.