OVER the last decade, Specsavers in Alton has championed good vision and road safety to coincide with National Road Safety Week, an awareness campaign that takes place every November.

This year, Road Safety Week falls on Monday (November 20) and already the store has surpassed last year’s donations by sending out 1,076 high-visibility jackets to children in and around Alton and 151 to their adult supervisors.

Located on Alton High Street, Specsavers has become renowned for its generosity with the free donation of high-visibility jackets in the community, and this year, store administrator Sandra Milburn was delighted to include adult jackets for the first time when collating the attire for 13 groups and schools.

Schools and clubs that have received the jackets include ACA Playgroup, Tootsies Nursery and Holybourne and Ropley pre-schools; Bentley Scouts, Medstead Brownies and Guides, and Alton’s Westbrook Guides; Butts Primary and Wootey Junior School, both in Alton, Four Marks Primary, Medstead Primary, Bentley Primary, and Andrews Endowed Primary School at Holybourne.

“All the children are now wearing their jackets with pride,” said Mrs Milburn.

Specsavers store director Premesh Patel said: “We like to play our part to ensure that children are clearly visible at all times particularly in the winter months.

“Our donation of high-visibility jackets is one small step, but an important one, toward achieving this goal.”

Sarah Harry, manager at Ropley Pre-School, was aware of the store’s activities regarding hi-vis jackets and made contact with her request. She said: “We were thrilled to get our allocation of jackets. It helps us to promote road safety with the children and play our part in keeping them being visible at all times especially as we are part of a small village where we go on lots of local walks. The children also think that their jackets are pretty cool and shiny!”

Dan Mills, assistant headteacher at Wootey Junior School, said: “As a school, we take part in a lot of cross-country events and this donation will help us to keep an eye on the children in the winter months. We also go on a lot of walks and hikes in and around the Alton area, so the jackets will be used frequently.”