COMMUNITY leaders have welcomed a recommendation that a speed limit be reduced outside a village high school.

Members of Malpas Parish Council have long been concerned about the 40mph limit in Chester Road outside Bishop Heber High School, when most schools would have a 30 or even a 20mph limit.

In addition, the approach from Hampton is a derestricted stretch allowing vehicles to travel up to 60mph just before the school.

Cheshire County Council's joint highways committee agreed to look at the speed limit on the road following a request from the parish council and the recommendation is that stretch outside the Heber be reduced to 30mph and the faster section to 40mph.

Members of the parish council heard the matter will be discussed at the joint committee on November 23. The Heber section is considered border line for a 30-40mph limit given the level of residential development but a 30mph limit is acceptable because of the number of vulnerable road users associated with the school.

Monitoring revealed the average speed on that stretch to be 36mph. Average speed on the faster section was determined as 43mph.

Parish Cllr Anna Patten, a governor at the Heber, had campaigned for a 30mph limit outside the school and for the derestricted section to be reduced to 40mph.

She said: 'It's basically what we asked for. I'm very pleased. I think if you look across the county and across the country there has been a move towards reducing speed limits, particularly near schools, and so hopefully it was an idea whose time had come. I pushed at the door at the right time.'

Malpas parish chairman Cllr Ann Wright said at the monthly meeting: 'This is excellent news. We should say a thank you to Cllr Patten.'

Chester Road has seen its fair share of serious accidents in recent years.

In July 2001, John Salter and his son David, 21, of Threapwood, were killed in a crash at Ebnal Bank near the school.

And in September 2002, pedestrian Jamie Davies, 17, a former lower sixth-form student at the Heber, died after being hit by a Ford Fiesta in the road as his friend Ben Corbett swerved to avoid a dog.