A mum campaigning for a safe pedestrian crossing on the A17 at Holbeach says it can’t come soon enough to stop people dicing with death.
Mum of two Paula Hayes lives in Kennedy Road, off Boston Road North, and crosses the A17 near the roundabout each day to get to Boston Road South while escorting her children on the school run.
There are dropped kerbs and a central reservation but Mrs Hayes still won’t allow her elder daughter, who attends Spalding High School, to go it alone and cross two double lanes of traffic.
Mrs Hayes said: “Not only is it an inherently dangerous road with the current crossing provision, but well-meaning mototorists who are stationary in the nearside lane exacerbate the dangers by beckoning pedestrians across when other cars are still speeding along the outside – essentially inviting people, some of them children, to walk into the path of unseen oncoming traffic.”
She has been asking Lincolnshire County Council for a crossing since July last year and last month received a letter via MP John Hayes from a county council official, Richard Willis, saying the spot meets the criteria but there’s no cash at present to provide pedestrian crossings.
Mrs Hayes said the council spent money refreshing road markings in her cul-de-sac, which were fine as they were, and £105,000 on “bizarre little” flood evacuation route (ER) signs.
“In my view the money would potentially save more lives if it was spent on pedestrian crossing provisions in the county.”
Her elder daughter goes to school by bus and the pick-up point chosen by the county council is on the town side.
In afternoons, Mrs Hayes makes one trip to collect her younger daughter from Holbeach Primary Academy and then goes out a second time to meet her elder daughter.
Mrs Hayes says there needs to be a safe crossing for all schooldchildren and residents who live on the north side and must access services and transport links in Holbeach town centre.
County councillor Nick Worth says a permanent foot crossing will go in when a new roundabout replaces the nearby Peppermint Junction and common sense says any work would be done when it’s constructed between September 2016 and June 2017.
When that scheme went to public consulation,options included a footbridge over the top but Coun Worth described that as “extremely expensive and unlikely to be a practical solution”. A second potential solution was to have a pedestrian crossing near the existing roudabout.
Coun Worth said: “I am not aware a decision has been taken one way or the other but we are bound to provide a safe access across the A17.”