Parent power has come up trumps as council planners prepare to implement a speed and weight restriction on vehicles using a busy village road serving four oversubscribed schools.

Wilmington Safer Streets (WSS) has been campaigning for Kent County Council (KCC) to take action over Common Lane in Wilmington for much of the year, and now planners have agreed to a 20mph speed limit and an HGV restriction.

The two measures will be subject to a public consultation before approval, but it is hoped both will be in place by April.

Stacey Brown, one of the parents behind WSS, said: “The support and determination of our WSS members and local councillors has resulted in KCC Highways confirming that Wilmington will be receiving much-needed safety measurements by spring 2017.

“While this is welcome news to our small village, there are still major traffic and safety issues that need addressing.

“WSS is working with KCC Education to ensure these remaining issues are firmly addressed in the expected permanent expansion plans of Wilmington Grammar School for Girls (WGGS) and Wilmington Academy.

“WSS is pleased that finally some common sense and much-needed communication is taking place and we hope this continues going forward.”

The academy and WGGS both want to expand, as does Asquith Day Nursery and Pre-School, but campaigning by WSS means that so far only temporary expansions have been approved.

"I want to pay tribute to these young ladies, because they really have been a good group who have achieved a positive outcome" Cllr Ann Allen

Portable cabins will create additional classroom space, on the condition that a footpath at the top of Common Lane is widened and an internal walkway is created linking the academy to a resurfaced public right of way in nearby Tredegar Road.

Wilmington Primary School is also in Common Lane and another safety measure hopefully coming into force by April is the installation of a zebra crossing just outside.

The crossing is being paid for by Cllr Ann Allen’s (Con) KCC membership fund. She represents Wilmington at County Hall and also sits on Dartford council’s transport committee, where Common Lane was discussed on Tuesday night.

Cllr Allen said: "I want to pay tribute to these young ladies, because they really have been a good group who have achieved a positive outcome."

Traffic has been so bad in the narrow road that vehicles have to mount the pavement at times, putting motorists and pedestrians – many of them schoolchildren – at risk.

Earlier this year a bus driver, 57-year-old Malcolm Andrew Lewis, of Bury St Edmund’s, Suffolk, was found guilty of careless driving after a girl was knocked down by his vehicle.