THE high number of accidents around Ribble Valley primary schools have encouraged the borough’s MP to throw his weight behind a new campaign.

Nigel Evans has said that the number of collisions around schools including Whalley CE Primary School have made him join with campaigners to call for more road safety around schools in the borough.

The campaign, which aiming to reduce the number of accidents, also encourages school communities in the area to help develop solutions to road safety issues.

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New figures from Axa Insurance show that between 2008 and 2013, there were 31 accidents within 500m of the Whalley school, four involving children, six which involving pedestrians and four which involving cyclists.

Nationally, the figures show that 68 per cent of all child road traffic incidents during the six-year period were found to have happened in the 500m around schools, although the total number has reduced in the past three years.

Axa, which first launched the campaign, has also produced a new interactive map road safety tool which uses the data to built a country-wide picture.

The MP has said that the crowdfunding campaign aims to enable Ribble Valley communities to source funds and help pay for road safety initiatives identified as being needed around schools.

He has called on parents, schools and businesses to use the service to pay for things like printing costs following a school road safety drawing competition or for funding a lollipop person or a new pedestrian crossing.

Mr Evans said: “Road safety in the Ribble Valley is an incredibly important issue.

“The number of road accidents in the UK, while falling, is still too high and we need to do all we can to support parents, schools and councils understand the risks and take steps to address them.

“The Axa Local Road Safety Map is a vital tool in highlighting where the dangers are, and I warmly welcome the work being done by Axa to match-fund road safety initiatives.

He called the funding a “This funding not only encourages local communities to work together to bring down the number of accidents on their local roads, but also provides “much-needed resource when local authority budgets are under increasing financial pressures”.

Richard Owen, director of Road Safety Analysis, said: “Compiling data and information is one thing, but putting meaning behind it and helping to develop ways in which more lives can be saved, is something very powerful.”