\n Mother-of-two Vicki Fox started a petition calling for lights and signs to be installed at Beckfield Lane\u2019s zebra crossing where cars stop abruptly or fail to stop due to poor visibility.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 45-year-old\u2019s petition stated she was horrified by the number of cars that fail to see pedestrians waiting to cross and called for action before a tragic accident happens.\n<\/p>\n
\n Dave Atkinson, the council\u2019s environmental and regulatory lead, said the request would be considered in line with a new process for dealing with changes to pedestrian crossings.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mrs Fox\u2019s Change.org petition calling for the changes had been signed by 418 people as of Wednesday, August 6, since its launch in June.\n<\/p>\n
\n That petition and paper versions were signed by more than 700 people when they were presented to July\u2019s full council meeting by opposition Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson Cllr Stephen Fenton.\n<\/p>\n
\n The petition calls for a push button pelican crossing to replace the current one used by children walking to and from local schools, residents and customers of nearby businesses.\n<\/p>\n
\n It stated the current zebra crossing was no longer fit for purpose, with visibility hampered by trees and a lack of routine maintenance\u00a0on its markings.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mrs Fox said she first noticed problems when she started regularly taking her daughters Lauren, eight, and Isabelle, six to their Carr Junior and Infant schools last year.\n<\/p>\n
\n RECOMMENDED READING:<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): \u201cAt first I thought it was just me, but I chatted to other parents and they said they\u2019d had issues there too so I thought something needed to be done about it, it\u2019s unsafe.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cIn February I saw a car slam on the brakes at the crossing and the one behind went into the back of them, I contacted the council to report the accident.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cMy eldest daughter is due to go into Year Five soon which is when most children start walking to school on their own, but even as adults we worry about using the crossing.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cI spoke to one lady whose daughter\u2019s now grown up, she said she almost got run over there when she was little, so it\u2019s a long-running issue.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Liberal Democrat Cllr Fenton, who agreed to take the issue up, said council workers had visited the crossing and repainted the markings after the concerns were reported.\n<\/p>\n \n But the councillor, of Dringhouses ward, added many felt the crossing was inherently unsafe and some had stopped using it all together.\n<\/p>\n \n Cllr Fenton said: \u201cThere are growing concerns that motorists are not stopping for pedestrians.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cThe proximity of some large trees does not help with visibility, but it won\u2019t be possible to do any significant tree pruning work until the autumn after nesting season.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Labour\u2019s Cllr Katie Lomas, who represents Acomb ward, said she had been working on the issue with council officers who had visited to see what changes could be made.\n<\/p>\n \n Cllr Lomas said: \u201cThe next step is for the highways safety team to assess the crossing and nearby junctions and recommend what measures can be implemented to improve safety.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cWe need to ensure any solution properly addresses the problem.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Council Environment and Regulatory Services Director Mr Atkinson said officials had received the petition and they were considering it.\n<\/p>\n \n The director said: \u201cThe request will be considered by our active travel team and assessed in line with our new process for pedestrian crossing requests.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n The council adopted a new methodology in June for assessing requests for crossings, in part to clear a backlog that has mounted in recent years.\n<\/p>\n \n A notice on the decision to adopt it stated the changes would give greater priority to need and future use and address existing casualty\u00a0issues and users\u2019 perceptions of danger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mother-of-two Vicki Fox started a petition calling for lights and signs to be installed at Beckfield Lane\u2019s zebra…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-324477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114986000308360772","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}