TWELVE local lollipop heroes have been honoured for their valuable road safety work.

Crossing "millionaire" Margaret Halliwell, of Hindley, received a gold award for her 20 years dedicated to keeping children safe.

Four others received silver awards for 15 years at the crossing at an award ceremony in Wigan yesterday.

They were Jacqueline M Gorse, of Atherton, Greta Shaw, of Platt Bridge, Margaret Yates, of Atherton and Kathleen Pilling, of Golborne.

Jacqueline, who has 17 years service, also collected an attendance award for being at her post for eight years without sickness.

Seven employees won 10 year bronze awards.

They were Susan C Steward, of Westleigh, Doreen Fisher, of Leigh, Catherine Pownall, of Lowton, Linda Marsh of Hindley Green, John MacFarlane, of Leigh, and Christine Genovese, of Leigh, along with Patricia Fleming, of Bamfurlong, who also received an attendance award for not missing a day in six years.

Road safety officer, Darren Barton , said: "Out of the 310,000 people living in the borough 50,000 are children. This amounts to over 500,000 trips to and from school each week, in other words there are 20 million school journeys each year.

"A school crossing patrol with over 20 years service will have crossed over a million children alone.

"All school journeys are made at peak times, and I am certain that without our patrols road casualties would be significantly higher every year.

"In fact it would be difficult to think of many more responsible or important jobs. The school crossing patrols are very special people and we appreciate them greatly.

The bronze and gold presentations were made by Cllr Barry Hampson, chairman of the road safety committee, Cllr Stephen Parker, chairman of the highways committee, and the Mayor, Cllr Evelyne Smith.

The attendance awards were presented by borough engineer John Simm and a representative of Asda who sponsor the event.

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