I WRITE in support of Mr Woodd of Westbridge Cottages, who at long last has been collecting signatures in order to petition the council about safety issues regarding the crossing on Plymouth Road adjacent to Texaco.

Within the past weeks a lady was injured on this crossing and the road closed for two hours.

Those who use this crossing will echo my sentiments in saying that it is a miracle that nobody has been killed and accidents are not more frequent. As a pedestrian, if you do not wait for both sides to actually stop, you face being in the middle of the road with multiple vehicles streaming through oblivious to the fact that traffic has stopped.

Excess speed and arrogance are certainly a factor, combined with a modern attitude that I am in a hurry and you are an inconvenience.

There is not a week that goes by when I do not suffer a near miss on this crossing. On one occasion a car had stopped for me and was shunted across the crossing by a following vehicle travelling too fast. Another time I was shunted while driving and stopped at the crossing and written off by a lorry. A controlled crossing for example, would allow traffic to flow more freely. At the moment, at peak periods around school times, (which are more dangerous) traffic has to stop-start continuously, which is frustrating for drivers.

Mr Woodd and myself invite people to write to us with your experiences on this crossing. We would like to build up a dossier of real people’s concerns and present them to county for them to enact changes to safety. A petition is available at the service station and over 400 signatures have already been collected.

It will not be easy, the powers that be will not want to spend any money. But are we going to wait for a tragedy before we act? Thank you. 

David Mason, 49 Westbridge Cottages. PL19 8DQ

Tony Woodd, 42 Westbridge Cottages. PL19 8DQ