A MOTHER who was attacked when she tried to rescue her son from a gang in Loughton High Road has collected a petition to try and change the routing of 999 calls made from mobile phones in the town.

Donna Law, who remains partially blinded after being headbutted last December when she went to the aid of her 13-year-old son, Steven, believes the system which sees mobile phone calls answered by the Metropolitan Police which then has to route them back to Essex Police delays response times.

Mrs Law said: "We want a quicker response and for policing levels not to decline. There was a large presence just after the attack but then it dropped off."

The 500-strong petition also asks for police to make full use of the dispersal zones around the High Road and The Broadway.

Almost three months on both Mrs Law and her son are struggling to recover from the attack, both physically and emotionally.

Mrs Law said: "I'm still partly blinded from it and my son is reluctant to go outside the door since it happened. It's been a rough time to go through. The kids haven't been feeling good and no one can tell me if my sight is going to come back, which makes looking after two young children difficult."

Mrs Law added: "I've heard some horror stories from people since I've been doing this petition and I would love to see it bring a change.

"If everyone battles on someone will have to listen to us. I don't want to be at the forefront of this but I can't stand back and let someone get stabbed to death.

"I feel like it's a responsibility because if someone had done it before my son got attacked it might have been different."

The petition was presented to Loughton district councillor Terry Farr who passed it on to Loughton Inspector Denise Morrissey yesterday.

An Essex Police spokesman said: "We believe the system we have is one which helps us to respond quickly to emergency calls. However, we do not have the monopoly on good ideas, so we will listen to any suggestions."