A 20 mph speed zone around Oldbury-on-Severn Primary School could be implemented in the coming months, after funding for the scheme was secured this week.

An application for funding was lodged on March 18 last year and £22,000 was allocated at a meeting of the Severn Vale Area Forum on Wednesday, March 5.

Debbie Dix has been head teacher at the school, which caters for 58 boys and girls, for six years.

She said: “This scheme will benefit our pupils and their parents but also many people in the wider community who walk up and down Church Hill, which is a steep and narrow lane with no footpath.”

Local Severn councillor Matthew Riddle said: “Reducing vehicle speeds close to the primary school had been a concern among local parents and the wider community and so I’m pleased that funding has been secured to introduce this 20mph limit around the school.”

Proposals to impose the speed limit will now be progressed as a priority scheme. Details of the scheme will go out for public consultation and advertisement, before following the legal process for a traffic regulation order (TRO) to be put in to place.

Although a decision to fund the scheme has been made, the funding doesn’t become available until the new financial year. From April 1, the scheme will be allocated to a specific highway engineer, who will then do a detailed design, which will then be subject to a public consultation.

Depending on the comments which come back, the scheme may need to be amended. Providing the consultation doesn’t come back with loads of negative comments, the next stage is for a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) to be published, which the public can also comment on.

A TRO is what allows a speed limit to be legally enforced and is the formal stage of any new transport scheme.

A South Gloucestershire spokesman said: “If anyone makes an objection to the scheme’s TRO advertisement, then a formal decision will need to be taken by the Severn Vale Area Forum on whether to proceed with it or not or to make changes. If there are no objections at this formal TRO consultation stage, and therefore no need for another Area Forum meeting, then the 20mph limit could be in place by the end of 2014. If there are objections, then this will delay the implementation of the scheme until the beginning of 2015.”