Lollipop men and women across Staffordshire and Derbyshire could be at risk as councils review the service as they battle to balance dwindling budgets.

In total, there are 408 school crossing patrol staff, or lollipop men and women as they are affectionately known, employed across the two counties.

All of these jobs could be at risk as new reviews get under way.

Both county councils say the reviews have been triggered by the need to save money, with Staffordshire facing its biggest budget shortfall ever of £35 million and Derbyshire looking to cut £12 million from what it spends on services this year alone.

Theresa Eaton, 64, is the lollipop lady who works at the junction between Chapel Lane, School Lane and Beacon Road in Rolleston, for two years.

She says that she is "saddened" at the news and feels it might be only a matter of time before a child was involved in an accident there if there was not a crossing patrol at the busy junction.

Mrs Eaton, who has lived in Winshill all her life and has five children and eight grandchildren, felt that she and her fellow crossing patrol workers were "easy targets" when it came to funding cuts.

Theresa Eaton, 64, is the lollipop lady for the John of Rolleston Primary School area, monitoring the junction of Chapel Lane, School Lane and Beacon Road
Theresa Eaton, 64, is the lollipop lady for the John of Rolleston Primary School area, monitoring the junction of Chapel Lane, School Lane and Beacon Road

She told the Burton Mail: "I really am saddened by the news, but we are just easy targets at the end of the day.

"I'd like to think that I would just be moved somewhere else, but we will see.

"We aren't paid a lot really; if any of us were doing it for the money it wouldn't be worth it. Cutting us is not going to make much of a difference.

"I really do feel quite strongly that without us here it would be only a matter of time before a child or someone else is hit, because it isn't just children we help keep safe, it's also the parents and we have a lot of elderly people around here too.

"I do it for the enjoyment of it and keeping kids safe.

"It take a certain type of person too, people ask all the time how we manage through the rain and snow and I say to them, 'so what? it's just weather'.

"At the end of the day what means the most is that the kids trust you; it's lovely.

"And we are like the bottom layer of the pyramid; if you take people like us out the whole thing could come down."

She says that the route through her junction has become a "rat run" with commuters heading through from the A38, especially when there is a crash or road closure.

Theresa Eaton, 64, has safeguarded the junction of Chapel Lane, School Lane and Beacon Road in Rolleston for two years
Theresa Eaton, 64, has safeguarded the junction of Chapel Lane, School Lane and Beacon Road in Rolleston for two years

Mrs Eaton said that her monthly earnings are around £230, which adds up to £2,760 a year, and £828,000 for all 300 of the county's crossing patrols in total.

Staffordshire County Council, which says its review will begin in September 2019, has forecast savings of £260,000 in this area next year, followed by £525,000 for each of the three years after.

Mum-of-three Elain Roberts, 69, from Horninglow, has worked as the school crossing patrol at the heavily-congested junction between Hillfield Lane, Main Street, Bridge Street and Church Road in Stretton for seven years.

She maintains that a child's life is worth much more than the amount of money which can be saved by cutting the school crossing patrols.

Mrs Roberts said: "How much is a child's life worth? That's what the council and the Government don't get, when it comes down this job, we make the difference between whether a child gets hurt or not.

"If they do decide they don't need us, a child will die.

"I know they plan on moving us from areas which haven't had issues to spots with more traffic, but if there is just one child who gets hit, that should be enough, it could be a child's life at stake.

Elain Roberts, 69, is the lollipop lady for the junction of Hillfield Lane, Main Street, Bridge Street and Church Road in Stretton
Elain Roberts, 69, is the lollipop lady for the junction of Hillfield Lane, Main Street, Bridge Street and Church Road in Stretton

"I do it because I love the job and I like to make sure that all the children are safe, and I hope the council do what is right and keep us around, for the good of the children.

"None of us do it for the money, we do it because it is important.

"There are a lot of near misses still, and fortunately the people of Stretton are lovely, it is largely the people rushing around getting to and from the A38."

Staffordshire County Council's cabinet support member for highways and transport, Helen Fisher, said that highways improvements such as pedestrian, pelican and zebra crossings along with other schemes have helped improve road safety throughout the county, and as such, some routes with crossing patrols may no longer require them.

She says the council will "do its best" to redeploy crossing patrols.

Councillor Fisher said: "We use a range of measures to help parents ensure their children get to and from school safely including, pedestrian, pelican and zebra crossings and the very successful '20 is plenty' [campaign] and walking bus schemes.

"We always assess each school crossing patrol location when somebody leaves and are now planning a wider review based on national criteria to ensure patrols are placed where they are needed most in the county, which is normally the busiest roads where it may be difficult for pupils to cross.

"We are continuing to recruit school patrols as needed and don’t expect to implement any changes until September 2019.

"We will be continuing to work with both patrols and schools and, where sites no longer meet the criteria for a patrol, we always do our best to redeploy people to another location."

Meanwhile, over in Derbyshire, each of the 108 school crossing guards earn £7.85 an hour and typically work for 40 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon, every week day during term times, and are paid the same monthly rate throughout the school holidays. Earning around £2,198 a year.

Staffordshire county councillor Helen Fisher says that road safety measure such as zebra crossings have led to some crossing guards being "redeployed"
Staffordshire county councillor Helen Fisher says that road safety measure such as zebra crossings have led to some crossing guards being "redeployed"

This brings the total paid out in crossing patrol salaries in the county to more than £230,000.

The county council says it plans to save £300,000 through a review this year, more than it pays out each year on crossing patrol salaries, and will work with schools and communities to find "alternative sources of funding" for crossing patrols.

A spokesman for Derbyshire County Council said that no decisions have yet been made on where the £12 million in cuts will be made.

He said: "The council needs to save £12m from the budget next year so we have looked at all our spending and as a result we are reviewing a number of services, including the school crossing patrol service, learning disability services, early help and services for nought to five-year-olds and administration and backroom services.

"No decisions have yet been made."

The law behind our lollipop men and women

It is an offence under the Road Traffic Regulations Act 1984, for a driver to fail to stop for a school crossing patrol wearing the official uniform and displaying the patrol stop sign.

It is also an offence for a driver to move off whilst the patrol is still on the road

School crossing patrols have additional powers to stop traffic to help adults cross the road, as well as children going to and from school.

Possible penalties include: A fine up to £1,000, three driving licence penalty points, or and outright driver's disqualification.