BOLTON primary school children will stay safer on the roads this winter after a scheme to issue them all with reflectors.

The Nationwide Building Society is providing every young child in the country with the "Cats' Eyes" reflectors for them to wear on clothing or bags.

Today, MP David Crausby visited Walmsley Cof E Primary School, Egerton, along with with Nationwide senior branch manager Tony Foster to talk to the children about road safety.

Throughout the country, a total of 5.5 million reflectors have been issued, allowing child pedestrians to be seen at 150 metres by cars compared to 30 metres without one.

"Children are at their most vulnerable during the dark winter nights and mornings.

"We are hoping that all local primary school children in the area will be wearing their reflectors in the coming months," said Mr Foster.

Each school is also being provided with a road safety pack to be used in the classroom to increase children's understanding of road safety.

In Finland in the last four years, where the discs have been marketed along with a campaign, child road casualties have been halved.

"We are committed to halving the number of children killed or seriously injured on our roads by 2010," said the Government's road safety minister, David Jamieson.

"This simple, but extremely effective idea could really help us to do just that."

A recent survey carried out for the Nationwide Building Society shows that nearly half of all boys and a third of girls have only narrowly avoided being hit by a car, but most children never mention it to their parents for fear of worrying them.