ROAD safety officers say everything is being done to ensure children from deprived areas are not at risk on our roads.

Their comments follow a report which revealed children from the poorest homes are the most likely to be killed on the roads.

The study, by children's charity Barnardo's and environmental group Transport 2000, pointed out that 268 children die or are seriously injured each month on Britain's roads.

The report, launched by actress Jenny Agutter, calls for urgent action by government and councils.

It found that many children believe speeding, selfish driving and busy roads are preventing them from playing outdoors.

Dorset County Council says the number of children injured on the county's roads is low in comparison with other areas.

Robert Smith, team leader of the council's road safety department, said: "There are around 200 child casualties a year on Dorset's roads and the majority are car passengers from all walks of life.

"There is one slight issue which needs addressing, which is the Grange ward in Somerford - an area with a degree of local authority housing. An action group has been set up looking into the issue of accidents to children in the Grange ward. It's not an issue in the rest of Dorset."

Nevil Tillman, road safety officer at Bournemouth Borough Council, said its figures for last year were low.

During 2003 four child pedestrians aged up to 15 were seriously injured on the roads in Bournemouth. None were killed.

Mr Tillman said: "If you think we have got thousands of children going to school every day, it's still a really good record. But any child who gets seriously injured is one too many."

Bournemouth has been involved in running the Kerbcraft child pedestrian training scheme aimed at five and six year olds and relies on using trained parent volunteers.

In Poole the number of children under 15 killed on the roads was zero, while 78 were injured in the last year.

A spokeswoman said the figures showed that the Borough of Poole was on the way to meeting the government target of a 50 per cent reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured by 2010.

Martin Baker, the council's senior road safety engineer, said: "In July 2003 we undertook a Child Road Safety Audit as required by the Department for Transport.

"This study has shown that the majority of road safety and traffic calming schemes that have gone in over the last ten years had specifically taken child casualties into account and had led to a corresponding reduction in numbers in socially deprived areas."

First published: October 18