COUNCIL chiefs will investigate traffic dangers near a Winchester school after pressure from a campaign to bring back its lollipop man.

Parents at Weeke Primary School have declared a "minor victory" in their road safety battle after Hampshire County Council agreed to a study on Stoney Lane.

Campaigners hope the results will show traffic has increased and more than a zebra crossing is needed to get children over the road.

But Cllr Seán Woodward, executive member for transport, is set to consider compulsory redundancies at other schools where there are patrol officers as well as formal crossings.

Last week the Chronicle reported that more than 100 parents are urging the county to reinstate the service that was lost when Robin Pritchard took voluntary redundancy amid a county-wide cutback.

Lollipop people are currently allowed to stay on until they retire or quit, but Cllr Woodward said he would "have to look at" the policy, raising the prospect of forced job losses.

Cllr Woodward said dozens of schools without formal crossings are on a waiting list for lollipop people, "We've got schools with children crossing with no formal crossing and no school crossing patrol, and we've got other schools with formal crossings and school crossing patrols, so that's not fair," he said. "We've got funding for 266 school crossing patrols, or lollipop people, and in the ideal world they would all be crossing children where there aren't controlled crossings."

The Weeke study will count the number, size and speed of vehicles using the road at peak times and use a complex formula to judge what crossing is needed. The county has also commissioned a pedestrian survey.

"If, say, a puffin crossing was justified rather than a zebra, then we would look to put in a puffin crossing," Cllr Woodward said.

Campaign leader David Adams said: "This is a minor victory for us, as Hampshire County Council had refused previously to conduct a new survey in addition to the survey run in 2011 which showed the need for the school crossing patrol.

"What the figures will show and what Hampshire County Council tells us it wants to do after it sees those figures remains to be seen, but at least they are doing the survey.

"In the meantime we will continue to police the crossing, gather signatures for the petition, promote the campaign however we can and prepare for a possible deputation in front of the full council on October 22."