WORK on a traffic calming scheme to stop drivers from speeding past a primary school will get under way next month following a year-long campaign by parents.

A 20mph limit, two speed cushions and two speed tables will be installed in Thirsk Road, outside Easingwold Primary School, during the October half-term holiday.

More than 360 parents and concerned residents signed the Easingwold 20 Zone petition last summer after a county council survey showed that two out of three vehicles driving past the school were speeding.

More than one in three were travelling faster than 35mph and six drivers every day were exceeding 70mph.

The council has confirmed in writing to campaigners that work on the traffic calming scheme will start next month.

Gerard Tubb, chairman of the Easingwold 20 Zone campaign, said: "Thanks to the campaign's success, after the half-term holiday any idiots planning to speed past the school will be more likely to damage to their suspension than our children.

"It will be annoying at times to negotiate the new humps and bumps in Thirsk Road, but official research shows that traffic calming schemes like the one we have secured reduce average speeds by about 10mph, and reduce the risk of accidents to children by nearly 70 per cent.

"We ask any drivers who feel a grumble coming on to remember the following - at 40mph, nine out of ten people hit by vehicles are killed, and at 30mph one in five don't live to tell the tale.

"But when the vehicle is travelling at 20mph, 97.5 per cent of pedestrians and cyclists live.

"We agree with the hundreds of people who signed our petition - that's a statistic that must be worth slowing down for."