COUNTY council bosses are stepping up their efforts to educate drivers and young people about road safety in response to the Lancashire Telegraph’s ‘Slower Speed, Safer Children’ campaign.

After authorising the final roll-out of 20mph speed limits in residential areas, new Labour leader Jenny Mein has now ordered a raft of new measures.

She is putting extra resources behind driver education and school road safety lessons, including pupils talking to motorists who break the lower limit near their classrooms.

Coun Mein has asked highways chiefs to look at physical road calming measures, such as humps and chicanes.

The county is responsible for highways in Hyndburn, Burnley, Pendle, Ribble Valley, Rossendale and Chorley.

Coun Mein said: “The initial phase of the programme has involved signage to establish these 20mph areas, but unfortunately speed limits alone are not enough.

"As well as looking at whether signs alone are enough, or if engineering measures are needed, our long-term approach is to change drivers' behaviour.

“It is the same challenge faced in the past when persuading people to wear seatbelts and avoid drinking and driving. We need to educate drivers to make speeding in residential areas and around schools unacceptable."

The county and police are promoting School Road Watch and Community Road Watch schemes with the support of Lancashire Constabulary who are poised to enforce the 20mph limits if other means do not work.

In the School Road Watch programmes, primary pupils help police officers carry out checks and then talk to speeding motorists about the possible consequences of their driving behaviour.

Lancashire Police’s head of road traffic Chief Inspector Debbie Howard said: "We have the option of enforcing 20mph speed limits and we will use this if we are unable to change drivers' behaviour. We feel educating drivers to make them understand the consequences of driving dangerously is very effective.”

* Blackburn with Darwen highways boss Maureen Bateson gave a presentation to councillors on Wednesday about the proposed 20mph pilot scheme in Mill Hill but campaigning LibDem leader David Foster said: “I am concerned at the time this will take. It will be completed in 2014. Then it will be a year before the casualty data. It seems late 2015 or even 2016 is the earliest for a borough-wide decision.”