LOWESTOFT lollipop lady Lian Shepherd has just made an impassioned plea to keep the under-threat school crossing patrols in Suffolk.

Making one of the first addresses to councillors ahead of this afternoon's crunch Suffolk County Council meeting at Endeavour House, Mrs Shepherd, from Carlton Colville, explained how a child had been killed in Lowestoft, and how ten days ago a patrol warden was knocked down by a car on the same busy stretch of the A12. She said: 'Every child is some parent's most precious thing they have got. I am begging you not to got through with this. This is not about saving our jobs.'

The county council are planning to controversially save �174,000 a year by scrapping all 60 school crossing patrol staff, including 14 in Lowestoft. Their plans comes after more than 10,000 signatures were handed out to the authority to save the controls a fortnight ago.