Villagers mount campaign over footpath safety fears

Last updated at 11:10, Monday, 25 February 2013

Hundreds of Broughton residents are campaigning for safety improvements to a path used by many schoolchildren.

SAFETY CAMPAIGN: Broughton residents are calling for action after the main footpath used by children to get to the village school was cut in two by a new housing development

Concern has grown after the main footpath which children use to get to the village school was cut in two by a new housing development.

For more than 100 years the path from Kirklea at Little Broughton and past Christ Church provided a safe route between the village and Great Broughton.

But a new road has been built across the path as part of a Persimmon housing development at Church Meadows.

Parents fear that, with no crossing, children are being put at risk.

Visibility is often limited because of parked vehicles and the road is used by construction traffic.

Mum Kerry Henderson, of Church Meadows, has set up a campaign group on social networking website Facebook – Great Broughton school path campaign – and attracted 200 members in its first 48 hours.

The campaign has the backing of Broughton Primary School headteacher Karen Shankland.

Kerry said: “We need signs up to say there’s a path there.

“It’s just going to take a lapse in concentration and it’s going to end up with a death or life-changing injuries.

“I work as an ambulance technician and I wouldn't like to think I’d get called out to one of our kids.”

She has contacted Cumbria police and the county council and has been told the issue will be discussed next month.

Kerry and fellow campaign supporter Claire Winter, of Kirklea, attended Broughton Parish Council’s meeting on Tuesday to seek support.

Claire said: “A zebra crossing will alert traffic to the fact that there are people crossing there. This is having a major effect on children walking to school.”

Councillors backed the campaign and agreed to write to the county council asking for the results of monitoring.

First published at 13:02, Friday, 22 February 2013
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk

Have your say

Its all well and good campaigning about the road going through the pathway but we should not forget that it was the councils decision not to allow access from the other side of the village because of the problems associated with through traffic.
No campaign is being waged against the daily school run when cars & vans drop off the children in the morning and pick them up again in the afternoon when they park anywhere drive through the estate as if it is a race track.
It seems to me that little or no thought was given to the school run issue before the development started and even less to problem of cutting through the original pathway.

Posted by Alan Woods on 28 February 2013 at 19:53