GO-ahead students at Hamble Community School have taken a major step forward in tackling the problems of traffic congestion around the campus.

The school is on Eastleigh's busiest B-road, the B3397 Hamble Lane, and snarl-ups reach a peak in the morning.

But, after carrying out their own traffic survey and analysing the results, Year Nine geography students have come up with positive solutions which are now being brought on line.

With funding from Eastleigh council's Bursledon, Hamble and Hound local area committee and Hamble's BP Oil Terminal, the students decided to produce their own travel plan, backed up by an in-depth survey of the methods used by fellow students to get to school.

The resulting data was computer-analysed and students also gave a presentation of their findings to Hamble Primary School, which also shares a frontage with Hamble Lane.

Their main proposals to slam the brakes on students being taken to school by car included:

Asking Southampton First Bus Company to use a double-decker bus in the mornings, reduce return fares to encourage students to use the bus both ways, change the bus timetable to dovetail with school starting time and put bus shelters at popular stops.

Extending the cycle route network along Hound Road into Netley.

Asking Eastleigh council to purchase commercial software to administer a car-sharing scheme for student lifts to school - and to make it available to all schools in the area.

Already, some of the proposals put forward have been adopted - including a plea to South West Trains to re-timetable its eastbound service to call at Hamble at the end of the school day rather than before.

A recommendation that the school should provide better cycle storage facilities has also been taken up and a new design of cycle shelter with spaces for 100 machines will be installed in the New Year at a cost of £13,500.

Hamble school teacher/governor Simon Letts said: "Getting to grips with real-life problems and coming up with practical solutions has been one of the most rewarding and satisfying projects we have tackled. Our thanks go to everyone who helped us along the way."