A GROUP of teenagers from Dawlish College have been praised for their calls for road safety measures presented at a council meeting.

The youngsters, aged between 13 and 15, presented a petition and were asked to speak to members of Devon County Council’s Highways and Traffic Orders committee about the results of their own survey.

Now councillors have agreed a scheme for a new safety crossing to be designed by highways engineers by the summer term at Elm Grove Road and the A379.

It was also agreed one of the zebra crossings on Exeter Road will be converted to a signal crossing due to a fatality last year.

The changes will also benefit the nearby Gatehouse Primary School around the A379 junction and Elm Grove Road although money to fund the scheme would still need to be found by the county council.

Their campaign ’20 is plenty’ started a year ago after one student was hit by a car.

He was airlifted to hospital and suffered a head injury which required surgery.

The youngsters carried out their own survey to show the real scale of the problem which revealed nine students reporting they had been hit by vehicles outside the school on Elm Grove Road.

One student explained: ‘We found that over three-quarters of pupils were affected in some way in terms of road safety.

‘That's 173 that have almost had a collision with a car and nine of them have been hit.

'What's even more alarming is that lots of those pupils at the time were in Year 7 and so maybe had only been attending the school for probably two or three months.

‘When we think about all of the people who have been hit or who have close calls it is worrying and it's deeply concerning - because we deserve a safe place to cross the road.’

Another pupil revealed some youngsters are now too scared to cross the road near to their school as they worry about an incident.

Deputy head Kate Bukowski said pupils have seen each other being injured and so have staff.

She added: ‘I’m on duty every morning and so I'm outside on the road every morning and I see children between cars and I see cars pulling out - and there are lots of near misses every day.’

The campaign was supported by Dawlish county councillor Rosie Dawson.

She said: ‘The young people were incredible and I’m so so proud of them.

‘I presented a petition from our community with 841 signatures calling for improved safety on a379/Elm Grove.

‘After design phase and consultation, the next push will be to find funding but we are another step closer.’

She is also asking Devon County Council and Teignbridge Council to work with her on a scheme idea which involves using a nearby carpark for coaches and parents to reduce the risk of congestion.

Cllr David, Cox, chairman of the committee, praised the teenagers saying: ‘They made very pertinent points and the councillors were very impressed with their passion and commitment and maturity - and we hope we've got a way forward that they agree with.’