I was shocked to read Charles Witney's report (The Argus, April 1) which featured a recent poll, suggesting more than half the West Sussex respondents rejected 20mph speed limits outside schools.

I find it astonishing anyone could resist such a proposal, given the large proportion of road accidents which involve schoolchildren.

As the recent hard-hitting television campaign points out, if a child is hit by a car travelling at 30mph or less, there is a higher chance they will survive. If, however, they are hit at 40mph, their chances of survival are greatly reduced.

It should always be borne in mind by drivers that children don't think like adults (which is perhaps a good thing most of the time).

When they emerge from school in the afternoons, they are at their most vulnerable - and will be excited, chatting to their friends and, in all probability, not concentrating on the traffic.

This is where we, as responsible adults, have a duty to protect them.

In my view, the best and most effective way of doing so is to make drivers slow down when they are passing a school, enforced with speed cameras if necessary.

When I was a member of the old Highways and Works Committee on Hove Borough Council in the early-Nineties, a child in my ward suffered serious injuries after being knocked down outside a school by a brainless, speeding driver.

I put forward a proposal to the committee asking for speed limits to be reduced to 20mph outside schools but some ten or 15 years later, there are still only a couple of "school safety zones" in Brighton and Hove and even these are not legally enforceable.

I was, therefore, delighted to hear the road safety charity Brake is launching a national campaign to get 20mph zones established outside every school in the country.

I offer my 100 per cent support and wish them every success.

-Councillor Peter Willows, Hove