NORTH Cornwall Conservative MP Scott Mann met with campaigners in Stratton last week to discuss and witness first-hand the extremely busy and consequently dangerous crossing on the A39.

With children returning to school today (Thursday), worried parents are campaigning to get a safe way for them and their children to cross over the busy A39 and into the school gates, as well as making it a safe area for other pedestrians and road users too.

There are three women who have tried getting some momentum back into the campaign which has been an ongoing issue for some time — Lucy Wilson, Lisa Wood and Vicky Jones.

Lucy said: “There are a couple of issues with the area we’re campaigning about; one being the size of the island itself, and, two, the amount of traffic coming in different directions making crossing easy to misjudge.

“It’s a much bigger problem than simply replacing the island.”

Lisa’s son goes to Stratton school and she said people that live in Stratton simply cannot get to the school safely.

Her son was nearly hit by a car once, and she feels that it is an accident waiting to happen.

She added: “Some people have suggested using the lollipop lady at the top of the A39 by the AW Bents factory, but you just can’t get there safely.”

Last April the Post spoke to Fiona Hodges, sustainable traffic coordinator from Stratton Primary School, who said: “The current bollard and kerbed area in the middle of the road is very narrow, certainly not enough room for families to cross in safety.

“With an increasing number of pupils joining the school and the need to encourage walking rather than driving, we really need to make this crossing much safer and more visible with a zebra crossing in place.”

Although a zebra crossing has not been added, nor has anything else about the area been altered since then, it seems that more drastic action needs to be taken, and campaigners are calling for an entire new road layout to feel that the area is safe.

Lucy added: “Its not just a problem for the pupils and parents, but for local road users too, there’s too much going on at the junction, especially during the busy school drop-off and pick-up times of the day.

“The campaign itself has been an ongoing thing for 10 years, but during our on-site meeting with Scott Mann he said that the fact that there’s been so much development in the Stratton-Bude area recently, we might be in a good position to get the help we need in terms of funding to get something done.”

That will be welcome news to Stratton head teacher Phil Aldis who has described the area as ‘a nightmare’.

“We have campaigned for years, meeting the North Cornwall MP at the time Dan Rogerson, and local councillors who have all witnessed how dangerous the crossing and junction is, but nothing has been done yet.

“I’m amazed that there hasn’t been more accidents, just from a collision point of view, especially coming out of the junction at school times.

“We try to promote sustainable travel as much as possible with children choosing to walk, scooter and cycle to school, but coming from Stratton itself is really poor.”

For the full report, and a round-up of the area news and sport, see this week’s edition of the Post.