Three schools have been selected for an experimental project which will seek to cut speeds and reduce traffic accidents involving children arriving and leaving schools.

Hampshire County Council has applied to the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions for approval to create the 20mph zones, which are set to be put into place in January 1999 if permission is given.

In reducing the school run, walking to school needs to be made safer

This project will be the forerunner of the council's plans to introduce a similar speed limit for all of its 600 schools in the next four years, a proposal that depends on a £1.6m application for government funding.

For the pilot scheme, traffic signs will be set up around the three schools - Horndean Community, Horndean Junior and Horndean Infants, near Portsmouth - showing motorists that they are approaching a school.

The 20mph limit will be an advisory measure, rather than compulsory, but the local authority will be expecting drivers to comply.

Along with traffic calming there will be other road-safety measures, including widening footpaths and extending railings to stop children spilling into the road.

The Horndean schools are taking part in a scheme to reduce the numbers of parents bringing children to school by car, with the safety measures intended to ensure that if more children can be encouraged to walk to school, they can do so in safety.

The council is seeking to reduce both the number and severity of injuries around schools. When hit by a car at 20 mph, children have a 90% chance of survival, compared to only 50% at 30mph.

According to the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, Britain has one of the worst rates of fatalities in child pedestrian accidents.

A fifth of car accidents involving children occur near schools, a figure which the council wants to reduce.