The crossing near Nooklands, and Sarah Thornton with her children Elvie and Bobby

A mother has partially won her battle to make a section of Garstang Road safer.

Sarah Thornton, who lives in Nooklands off the main road through Preston, had called for a new pedestrian crossing.

The 35-year-old mother-of-two said the small crossing opposite Nooklands and St Pius Prep School was not big enough to handle the volume of pedestrians crossing during school hours.

Lancashire County Council responded to her petition for a new pedestrian crossing saying it couldn’t do this due to budget constraints but it would upgrade the existing traffic island to make it bigger.

Another view of the Nooklands crossing

Mrs Thornton, who is a company secretary, said: “I’m just so happy they’ve actually listened to what we’ve said. I was very surprised when I got the email as you just expect them to ignore it.

“When I’m taking the children to school then it’s the high school pupils I am most worried about. You see them crowded onto that traffic island and there just isn’t enough space.

“I’d like to thank everyone who signed the petition and helped bring this about. I will be letting the school know once they are back for the new term.”

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The county council says there has been one recorded incident at the junction in the past five years.

Senior district lead officer Christine Entwistle at the county highways service said: “In response to the petition submitted to Lancashire County Council requesting that we upgrade the small island near the south entrance of Nooklands of Garstang Road to a pedestrian crossing. Please be advised that as the highway authority for Lancashire we have a finite budget for traffic related schemes and a responsibility to prioritise our resources that best serve the residents and road users in Lancashire. Our current priority is to target those resources at locations with a proven road safety issue which is determined by significant numbers of injury accidents, in addition to schemes that will contribute to the improvement of the wider highway network.

“On review of the injury accident records there has been one recorded incident involving a pedestrian in the last 5 years or longer. As this indicates a good road safety history we are unable to support the request for a pedestrian crossing scheme at this location at this time.

“However as there is already a very low kerb refuge island on the carriageway with dropped crossing facilities on both footways leading to the refuge island, we do intend to enlarge it to provide greater capacity and we anticipate the construction will be carried out in early summer 2017.”

What do you think about the decision? Do you use Garstang Road? Let us know in the comments below