CONCERNED Parents are campaigning to get pedestrian crossing installed on a busy stretch of road.

A petition launched two years ago amassed 359 signatures called for a crossing on Kingstown Road in Carlisle, between the Bannatyne’s gym and the Moorville Road end.

 Catherine Quinlan who raised the petition said: “I cross the road every day to take my kids to school, and it has become more dangerous.

“There are more cars on the road and we’re just there waiting on the island in the middle, it just seems to carry on day after day,”

Cumbria County Council heard her present the petition at a meeting in late 2022, and it was deferred to the current Cumberland Council.

It was considered in January 2023, and it was then decided by the council that further work had to be done to investigate how feasible it was to provide a pedestrian crossing

Cumberland carried out an informal consultation in December 2023 which included affected frontages of Kinstown Road and some from Moorville Drive, along with Kingmoor Junior School.

The council said they received four letters objecting and two in favour.

Furthermore, a counter-petition receiving 57 signatures was received by the council, pointing out two main objections: 

There were too many lights of any kind in the area;

The crossing would hold up traffic too much, and would cause accidents;

A council document states: “Within an 800-metre stretch of Kingstown Road, there are currently four sets of traffic signals which include two signalised pedestrian crossings and two pedestrian refuges."

They also explain that a feasibility study was done and highlighted drainage concerns and a private verge in the area that, if a traffic signal pole was installed there, would need to be considered part of the public highway.

The proposal will again be deferred to a future meeting of the board including a feasibility study of a pedestrian phase on the Windsor Way junction.

A frustrated Mrs Quinlan said this shows there is a 'lack of strong direct democracy in Cumberland' given that her petition has received hundreds of signatures. 

Brian Wernham, Lib Dem councillor for Stanwix Urban, said it’s ‘disappointing’ that all highways issues are controlled by a Labour-run committee without cross-party consideration, and that it’s best dealt with by the community panel for Border, Fellside, and North Carlisle, on which he and councillors representing different parties sit, adding that they were ‘bypassed without our role to play’.

“The elected council members for the wards concerned were not informed that the matter was to be discussed, and indeed we could not have requested to speak in time for the meeting as the agenda was published after the deadline to request to speak passed,” he said,

He added: “Legislation requires council committees to be politically balanced, and I am very concerned that this highways committee consists only of Labour councillors and that no other committee can receive residents’ petitions on highways matters."

Cumberland Council was approached for a comment.