AS VILLAGE youngsters started going back to school this week, work has finally begun on a package of road safety measures in the centre of Bransgore.

The £20,000 scheme, including warning lights, pinchpoint crossing places and coloured road surfaces, comes in the wake of a fatal accident earlier this year when a 12-year-old girl was in collision with a car as she crossed the busy Ringwood Road to catch her school bus.

Shocked by the death of 12-year-old Arnewood School student Linzi Wright, villagers raised a 1,000-name petition and won the backing of Hampshire councillors and highways officers for urgent traffic calming measures.

Hopes that the works could be completed during the summer before the start of the autumn term were dashed when contractors were held up on a previous project in Ringwood.

First phase of the work expected to be completed this week is the provision of dedicated crossing points at three key locations - outside the Post Office, opposite the shopping parade and adjacent to the Brookside Road footpath - with widened pavements, dropped kerbs and tactile paving.

Talks have also been held with school bus operators to move pick-up points to safer locations.

County councillor John Waddington, who spearheaded the local effort to win the traffic calming measures, welcomed the start of the project.

He said: "Let's hope it works and slows traffic to make Ringwood Road safer for everyone."