A STRETFORD Mall optician is making sure children are safe on dark winter days by donating 170 high-visibility vests to a local primary school. 

Steve Arran from Specsavers in Stretford Mall spends his days helping people see and is now ensuring the youngsters can also be seen. 

He has given the bright orange jackets to St Mary’s CE Primary in Davyhulme and is hoping it will help the children on their dark walks to and from school.

Steve said: “It’s so important that youngsters are kept safe when they’re walking to and from school on these dark winter days.

“This particular primary school does not have a lot of its own facilities so I know the kids are on the road quite a lot going back and forth to different places.”

The vests were given to the Stretford Mall optician as part of a nationwide company scheme during Road Safety Week and store director Steve gave some to a local Beavers and Cubs group before gifting the remainder to St Mary’s.

The 61-year-old store director, who has been the optician at the branch for 22 years, has a seven-year-old granddaughter himself so knows the importance of making sure the youngsters are seen by vehicles.

So when a colleague suggested that St Mary’s would appreciate the vests, Steve jumped at the chance to hand them over to head teacher Anita Fagan.

Receiving the vests from Steve, Anita said: “I am delighted and extremely grateful to Specsavers for donating the ‘high-vis’ jackets to the children at St Mary’s CE Primary School.

“We have wonderful, bright and enthusiastic, extremely special children at St Mary’s and their safety is paramount to us. The wearing of these jackets will make sure that the children can be clearly seen when walking near to roads in the local area or attending a school trip.”

Colin McCrory, Stretford Mall Manager, said: “I know Steve and his team at Specsavers are very community minded and it is great to see the support they are giving to one of our local primary schools.”

As a school of 210 pupils, St Mary’s occupies a plot on a very busy road which often ends up congested by both passing traffic and parked cars.

Luckily no major incidents have occurred but Anita explained that children have experienced quite a few ‘near misses’ on their way in and out of school.

She said: “These near-accidents have been due, in the main, to the careless parking of cars which have prevented the children from being able to cross the road in safety, in clear view of on-coming traffic.

“In some cases, cars have even reversed onto the pavements near to school – not seeing the children walking there.

“The high-vis jackets will therefore obviously be of huge benefit in enabling the children to be easily identified, for them to stand out, and therefore be safe and free from harm.”

Road Safety Week is the UK's biggest road safety event, involving thousands of schools, organisations and community groups every year, and Specsavers is one of its biggest sponsors.

The event was established in 1997 and is co-ordinated ever year by the road safety charity, Brake, with this year’s week falling from November 17 to 23.

The Stretford Mall branch has been involved in previous years and in 2013 used its vests to help another local primary school set up a walking bus scheme.

Steve added: “I’m really glad to have been able to help again this year and if it keeps these youngsters just that little bit safer when they’re out and about then that’s great.”