Watch above: Lollipop campaigners celebrate reprieve last year

The axe has been lifted from over the heads of Birmingham’s lollipop ladies after funding was found to halt the annual threat to their jobs.

Birmingham City Council bosses have agreed to guarantee £750,000 per year funding for the school crossing patrol service over the next few years, easing the pressure after a series of high-profile job threats.

It is a marked change as the service was threatened with the axe in the last two budget rounds , only to be reprieved following public outcry , a political backlash and a campaign from the Birmingham Mail .

The funding is short of the £880,000 currently spent on the service – but council bosses have guaranteed that patrols at all priority crossings, ones where there are no alternative pelican crossings, will be maintained.

It means that the majority of the 180 wardens will not be facing redundancy when the 2017 budget plans are unveiled early next year.

Alongside the guaranteed funding the city council is launching a new Active Children Trust to support safer travel to schools for the city’s children. The charity will provide small grants to pay for training and equipment - such as fluorescent bibs for walking buses or warning signs.

Lollipop attendants and supporters hold a protest against the council's proposed cuts outside St Margaret Mary RC School on Perry Common Road
Anti-cuts protest in Perry Common ahead of city council's 2015 budget u-turn

Labour council leader John Clancy, who announced plans for a Trust in the spring after the warden service was spared the axe for a second year running, said: “Ensuring that our children can travel in a safe and healthy way when out and about in Birmingham is of great importance to me.

“That’s why we are looking at how we can encourage parents, pupils and staff to adopt alternative ways of travelling to school to reduce car journeys, and improve not only their health but that of the wider community – with reduced road danger, and less air pollution and traffic congestion in local neighbourhoods.

“As a council we’ve done lots such as the work to introduce 20mph limits, traffic calming measures and the development of better cycling and walking routes but we know that there will be some very specific things needed to address local circumstances – the new trust will give citizens a way to unlock funding for measures other than physical highways improvements that make their areas better places in which to live.”

The Trust is being kick started with £75,000 from the council plus a £25,000 donation from a major corporate sponsor - due to be confirmed in the next few weeks. Schools and parents will be able to bid for grants of up to £1,000 for initiatives.

According to the GMB union , which represents wardens, statistics gathered in 2014 showed that, out of 2,628 road accidents recorded in Birmingham, only five occurred near crossings operated by School Crossing Patrol Wardens.