A GROUP of children from Latchford are taking the law into their own hands and blocking a road which they say is being used as a rat run and putting their lives at risk.

The children live on or near Budworth Avenue, just yards from busy Kingsway. At tea-time every night, they say, speedsters are cutting through either to miss the lights or to get home and narrowly missing hitting a child.

And they are calling for both the road to be made one-way and speed humps to be installed.

The protest began after a three-year old boy was almost mown down just days ago.

Candice Little, 15, the boy's elder sister, is leading the protest.

"We want to do something before something bad happens," she said.

"At tea time you can guarantee that lots of cars will come down off Kingsway. We all hang about here and we don't want them whizzing past us all the time.

Mum Nicola Biggs, of Budworth Avenue, says she and neighbours sit out every night to make sure all the children are safe. "Traffic lights were put just up the road on Kingsway when a little boy was knocked and killed some years back. There are a lot of kids here and we don't want the same thing to happen."

Westy Clr Hans Mundry says he is pushing to get 20 mile per hour speed limits imposed on all residential roads across the district.