Headteacher joins campaign for improvement to danger crossing

The Burnley Express reported earlier that people using the crossing in Padiham Road were “dicing with death” as it did not have the correct signage.Burnley Coun. Neil Mottershead has demanded action from Lancashire County Council and started a petition for the crossing to be upgraded and made more safe.He is being supported by the headteacher of the nearby Burnley High School, Victoria Povey, who has said her pupils have had a number of near misses on the road and called for a zebra crossing to be installed.She said: “My current concerns are that our children run into the middle of the road and wait there to cross the other half of the road.“The road is very wide and there is only a small waiting area in the centre of the road for children to wait on.“The road is also very busy and quite often people drive above the speed limit as the road is deceptively like a dual carriageway in places.“We constantly talk to our students about road safety during assemblies and tutor time and we encourage our students to be as sensible and vigilant as possible when crossing the roads, however we have had a number of near misses where children have not been able to see around a bus or large vehicle and have taken a chance.“A pedestrian crossing would be ideal, a zebra crossing even would make a huge difference and stop a potential accident.”A number of other schools are situated in the area including Shuttleworth College, St Joseph’s Park Hill, and Padiham Primary School.The Burnley Express reported in October, 2015, that concerned mum Jacqui Booth called for better road safety after her 12-year-old daughter Shannon, a pupil at Shuttleworth, was knocked down by a car on the same stretch of road.Thankfully, Shannon only suffered minor injuries when she was hit by a vehicle close to Whitegate petrol station.County Coun. Keith Iddon said: “I have been to see this road with Coun. Mottershead and understand his concerns over this issue.“However it is the council’s policy to prioritise zebra crossings for roads which have had incidents on them to ensure the needs of areas most in need are met.“I can assure him that the area is on the council’s radar and we will continue to monitor Padiham Road.”