Mr Derek Ashburner (72), who is the lollipop man for St Leonard's CE Primary School in Langho, will now compete for the UK Lollipop Person of the Year title.

The competition, which is being run by Kwik-Fit Insurance, invited every primary school in the country to nominate their lollipop person as best in the country.

Children, staff, parents and members of the community were asked to send in drawings, videos, stories, photographs or anything which reflected exactly what their lollipop person means to them.

"It didn't take much persuading for the children to write and draw pictures of Derek," said headteacher Mrs Anne Pickup. "They wrote some lovely things about Derek, including that he has always got a smile on his face.

"They said even when the weather is rainy, windy and cold he's still always smiling, which shows he's happy inside."

Mrs Pickup explained that when she took over as headteacher 11 years ago, the school was in danger of losing the crossing patrol as nobody was willing to take up the position. The role was particularly important at that time because the road still had a 60 m.p.h. limit, which has has now been reduced to 30 m.p.h., and she subsequently sent a plea out to parents and grandparents.

"Derek was bringing his grandchildren to school in the morning and picking them up in the evening and offered to do it while his grandchildren were at the school," explained Mrs Pickup.

Luckily for the school, Derek has seen his first two grandchildren, Amy Winterbottom and Matthew Whalley, progress to secondary school, but his two other grandchildren Ella Winterbottom and Ben Whalley are now pupils.

Mr Ashburner, who is involved with many aspects of school life, was presented with £500 worth of holiday vouchers and a silver lollipop trophy, while the school was presented with a £100 book voucher.

He told the Clitheroe Advertiser that his first priority had always been the children's safety, adding that he hoped pupils left St Leonard's with a good level of road safety awareness, which they could take with them to secondary school.