A safer route has been created for children to get to a Sittingbourne primary school after a campaign by a group of mums.

Kent County Council has installed a crossing point on Tonge Road in response to a plea from parents of pupils at Lansdowne School.

Leading the way was Kerry Capes, 38, who has a son, Henry, five, and a daughter, Harriet, eight, at the school.

She said: “Parents from Great Easthall were walking children across Tonge Road to go under the railway arch to Peel Drive.

“Speeding was an issue because where you cross it’s the start of the national speed limit, so anyone coming into the residential area was still doing 60mph and anyone going the other way was speeding up from 30mph.

“You also couldn’t see if anything was coming without stepping in the road to look.”

There was also an issue with the surface of the path from Easton Way, which was often muddy, and there was broken glass under the railway arch.

Mrs Capes, together with another mum Senga Grimwade, set up a Facebook page about the issue and gathered nearly 500 signatures for a petition asking for action to be taken.

She said the campaign was helped by members of the Labour group on Swale council, who assisted by getting the matter on the agenda of a Swale joint transportation board meeting in March.

Mrs Capes said: “I was able to say why we wanted a crossing.

“There hadn’t been an accident, but it was clear to me there was going to be an accident. They said something could go ahead but it could take up to 15 years.

“We just kept writing letters and became a nuisance via email.

“Then they agreed they could do it in the summer this year, but it was put back because they couldn’t cut back the trees.”

The work to install a crossing point and improve the footpath was carried out last month.

"We’re hoping drivers will start getting familiar with the fact children are crossing there - mum Kerry Capes

Mrs Capes said it was a major step in the right direction: “This is fantastic and we’re so grateful for what they’ve done because at least we feel safer and do not have to step in the road to see if a car’s coming.

“People are still speeding. We’re hoping drivers will start getting familiar with the fact children are crossing there.

“To be honest, we did not think we would get this far. Persistence was the key.”

Kent County Council spokesman John Todd said the work was funded thanks to a planning agreement with developers but he could not say how much it cost or what it entailed.