Roadworks are being carried out across Borehamwood and Elstree to improve safety for pedestrians and reduce the number of children being driven to school.

The county council is carrying out a £320,000 programme of roadworks during the summer holidays, to improve the roads around ten schools in the town.

When the work is completed early next month, there will be more speed humps, parking restrictions and pedestrian crossings, and a new one-way system in Alban Crescent.

After Borehamwood's school system was changed, so that there were primary schools instead of junior and first schools, the county council sent questionnaires to parents asking how their childrens' journeys to school could be made more safe.

The work, being carried out by engineering firm Mouchel, is a result of the answers given to the questionnaire. Project manager Magedie Pretorius said: "We identified unsafe areas and areas which could be improved, to encourage children to walk to school."

Part of the project will be to create Borehamwood's first 20mph zone, in Winstre Road near Cowley Hill School.

New speed humps will be installed in Furzehill Road, to slow down traffic around Summerswood School, and at Grove Road, Winstre Road, Alban Crescent, Kenilworth Drive, Hillside Avenue, Ripon Way, St Nicholas Close and Aycliffe Road.

Extra parking restrictions will be introduced in Winstre Road, Crown Road, Alban Crescent, Arundel Drive, Norfolk Gardens, Nicoll Way, Ripon Way and Allerton Road. New pelican crossings will be built near St Teresa's School in Shenley Road, and near St Nicholas School at Watford Road in Elstree.

Junctions will be improved at Furzehill Road and Arundel Drive, Furzehill Road and Tennison Avenue, Kenilworth Drive and Norfolk Gardens, and at Cardinal Avenue and Hillside Avenue. Most of the roadworks will be finished by September 6, although works near Summerswood, Kenilworth, Monksmead, Saffron Green and St Nicholas schools will take until September 17 to complete.

The county is also encouraging parents to organise walking buses, where large groups of children walk to school together, supervised by parents.