{"id":430536,"date":"2025-09-17T06:26:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T06:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/430536\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T06:26:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T06:26:12","slug":"council-issue-statement-after-two-girls-hurt-at-junction-where-pedestrians-play-russian-roulette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/430536\/","title":{"rendered":"Council issue statement after two girls hurt at junction where pedestrians &#8216;play Russian roulette&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;We just need to get this sorted&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>06:06, 17 Sep 2025Updated 06:29, 17 Sep 2025<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_JS381280077.jpg\" alt=\"The junction of Leicester Road, Middleton Road, and Bury Old Road.\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>The junction of Leicester Road, Middleton Road, and Bury Old Road.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Pedestrians are playing \u2018Russian roulette\u2019 with their lives at a busy junction due to a lack of safe crossings, a councillor has claimed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The area sits where <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/all-about\/bury\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Bury<\/a> Old Road meets <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/all-about\/middleton\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Middleton<\/a> Road and Leicester Road on the boundary of <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/all-about\/salford\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Salford<\/a> and Manchester, close to Crumpsall Hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Salford councillor Ari Leitner said changes are urgently needed to improve safety and stop people having to \u2018dash\u2019 between cars to cross.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">To see planning applications; traffic and road diversions and layout changes; and more, visit the Public Notices Portal <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/publicnoticeportal.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"HERELink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">It comes after reports of two girls, both aged 16, being injured on September 6 after an evening collision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Coun Leitner said he wrote to Salford council in 2022 asking for a review of the junction, but nothing was done.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The problem, he says, is the lack of pelican crossings, meaning cars are moving at all times without a gap for people to get to the traffic islands safely.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;There&#8217;s no way for pedestrians to know when they can and can&#8217;t cross, and it&#8217;s a miracle nothing&#8217;s happened until now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;You&#8217;re playing Russian roulette, you&#8217;re standing at the junction and all you can see is the lightest next to you, you can&#8217;t see the traffic lights at the other three streets, you&#8217;ve no idea if they&#8217;re about to start going.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\u201cWe just need to get this sorted. I know it&#8217;s going to cost a lot, it&#8217;s going to be a massive job, it&#8217;s probably going to be a project of \u00a31m and upheaval of six months, but it needs to be done. This is saving lives, it&#8217;s what people pay their council tax for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The Conservative councillor claimed that when he wrote to Salford council about the issue in 2022, the Labour-led authority \u2018said there&#8217;s no record of accidents, typically brushing it under the carpet and moving on.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">Join the Manchester Evening News <\/strong><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">WhatsApp<\/strong><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\"> group <\/strong><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/chat.whatsapp.com\/GY77Jy0SeCL8ZFZaNcWsVq\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"HERELink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He added: \u201cIt&#8217;s all nice for councils to promote walking but it&#8217;s not safe, these are 16-year-olds walking ten minutes to college and this is great, but how can someone let their children go to school knowing it&#8217;s not safe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of accidents on that junction, a resident who lives on the corner recently told me that there&#8217;s an average of two a week, not every single one is reported to the police, most of them are quite serious because it&#8217;s usually one car that&#8217;s trying to turn and the other one coming fast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Coun Mike McCusker, the lead member for planning, transport and sustainable development at Salford council, said: \u201cWe are aware of community concerns at this site which sits in both Salford and Manchester.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;We have investigated the recorded injury collision history and consider that there is no pattern of collisions that would indicate a common deficiency with the junction arrangement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;Any proposed improvement could be a renewal of the junction, delivering improved pedestrian and cycle facilities whilst balancing the needs for bus and other road users at this busy junction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;We are currently exploring funding opportunities working together with Manchester City Council and TFGM [Transport for Greater Manchester] and any future funding allocation will need to be balanced against other priorities across the city.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Manchester council was approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#8220;We just need to get this sorted&#8221; 06:06, 17 Sep 2025Updated 06:29, 17 Sep 2025 The junction of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[12,1290,27605,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-430536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-salford","11":"tag-salford-council","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115218218280191382","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430536","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=430536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}