CAMPAIGNERS presented a 600-signature petition to Beaminster Town Council on Tuesday asking for a crossing by the town's primary school.

Parents are demanding road safety action after a boy was hit by a car while walking to school.

Dawn Hughes' son Archie was taken to hospital after the collision on Clay Lane.

She told councillors that the 30mph sped limit needed lowering and the lights on the school sign fixing.

She said: "Cars go far too fast. My son was lucky that the lady was only going 10 mph.

"Obviously it is an issue not just for the primary school children but the elderly people and the general public and the playgroup on site.

"And when it is foggy people don't even know there is a school there."

Carolyn Emmet, who presented the petition, told councillors the signatures were collected after Archie's accident.

She said MP Oliver Letwin was coming to the school on May 5 to discuss possible solutions.

Mrs Emmett added: "The crossing control was taken away six years ago.

"We tried to re-instate it at the time but the county council had an equation that said the road was safe enough. It quite obviously isn't safe enough - a child has been knocked over and I have seen quite a few near misses so we need some sort of viable crossing there for kids and old people.

"The people who have signed this aren't just people with kids at the school, it is older people as well a whole cross section of people from Beaminster.

"The shop is a great asset outside the school but it does mean there is a lot of traffic and it is partly that that causes the problems.

"We need to resolve this somehow.

"There is also a whole load of issues about travel to school and the school is very keen to try a better route for everyone travelling to school as as happened in Broadwindsor with their fantastic virtual pavement and Salway Ash obviously with a a very expensive scheme. Beaminster needs something like that."