Crossing Campaign Stepped Up

A campaign for a safe pedestrian crossing on the busy A4304 in Lubenham is to be stepped up after Highway bosses said the need for one does not meet their criteria.

The call is being spearheaded by All Saints Primary School in the village, which says since their lollipop lady resigned over 18 months ago, fewer children are walking to school, because crossing the road is so difficult and dangerous.

The vacancy for a new school crossing patrol person remains unfilled.

Pupils wrote letters to MP Neil O’Brien and Leicestershire County Council, pleading for a crossing and handed in a petition signed by over 500 people.

Vanessa Lingley, Cllr Paul Bremner, Local PCSOs, Neil O’Brien MP, Diane Cook and Kal Budwal

A Council spokesman told Hfm: “We’re aware of the concerns raised and the safety of pupils is an absolute priority for us. We’ll always consider requests for pedestrian crossings and we carried out an assessment on Main Street, Lubenham, but the results did not meet the necessary criteria for the provision of a safe crossing.

“However, there is a school safety zone in operation with an advisory 20mph speed limit in place which covers the school’s start and finish times and the school has joined the school camera car enforcement scheme.

The school – which has pledged to continue to fight for the crossing – says more and more parents dropping their children off by car is also causing congestion outside the school gates.

Neil O’Brien said, “I appreciate the concerns people in Lubenham have over speeding, and it was really useful to meet with key local stakeholders to discuss this problem further.

I’ll be following up with Leicestershire County Council and Harborough Police to make the case for measures to tackle the speeding problems that Lubenham is currently facing.