KENDAL schools have been given a hotline to local police to save vital seconds in case of emergency.

Ten schools, including Queen Katherine and Kirkbie Kendal Schools, several primary schools and Brantfield Nursery School, have been issued with a special radio linking them with Kendal Police Station inquiry desk.

The hand-held portable device means schools no longer have to rely on the much-criticised police phone system CHAD - call handling and dispatch - based at Penrith.

Instead they will have a guaranteed link to local officers with local knowledge at Kendal Police Station.

Community Orientated Problem Solving (COPS) team member PC Steve Sharpe said the radio idea had followed a delayed police response to an incident at a Kendal school which had been owing to lack of local knowledge.

"The incident was dealt with satisfactorily but I thought we could have been there a little quicker - we are talking of a matter of minutes - so we thought about getting something up and running," he said.

The radios will also enable schools to warn one another if a child is approached

by a stranger or if a pupil disappears

from campus during the day.

Head teacher of Castle Park Primary School Hilary Peatfield said the £5,000 scheme - backed by Local Education Authority school security funding - gave her extra peace of mind.

"It makes me feel more confident about response times - that there is an extra layer of support," she said.

Mrs Peatfield described CHAD as "a perfectly adequate system" but added: "If the call is answered in Penrith you are not speaking to somebody who knows you, knows the area and knows the school.

This way we are always going to speak to someone with local knowledge."

PC Sharpe said the radios would also help support caretakers at the town's secondary schools.

"We have had reports of youngsters drinking in the evenings in dark corners around the school buildings.

Site managers and caretakers can use the radio in case they need people to be moved on, and we can get there a little bit quicker."

PC Sharpe said police recognised CHAD had suffered " teething problems" but added that training, and consequently the service itself, had vastly improved.