Cheshire East is to review the criteria for installing pedestrian crossings so residents have more of a say about the location.

The council is also to review traffic signal timings after hearing some children at one school don't use a crossing because it takes so long for the lights to change they instead 'leg it' across the road further up when there is a break in the traffic.

At present, when considering the criteria for installing crossings, the degree of conflict between pedestrians and vehicles is determined by PV2 where V is the two-way flow of vehicles and P is the two-way flow of pedestrians crossing the road.

The council's highways and transport committee was told on Thursday, this process of assessment fails if pedestrians calling for a crossing won't cross in that particular place until one is installed.

Alsager resident Sue Helliwell, who was speaking on behalf of campaigners fighting for a crossing on The Hill in Sandbach, said: "Cheshire East carried out a survey in 2018, however the PV ratio criteria was not met. There was not the footfall as there was no safe crossing.

"This has been proven by a traffic survey St John's Primary School carried out in November asking parents if they would walk to school if there was crossing. The findings were that there would be a 55 per cent increase if this happened."

Crewe councillor Hazel Faddes (Lab) said: "The present criteria for installing a crossing is very outdated and it doesn't take into account the local demand and support for crossings.

"The PV2 values will be low if pedestrians don't feel it's safe to cross the road, so engaging with ward councillors and residents on the benefits of a crossing gives a better picture of the needs of the community."

She said in her ward they had been campaigning for years for two crossings.

"At one particular point we have 100 children crossing every morning a really busy road to get to a school transport bus but the PV value wouldn't match the criteria at the moment because the rest of the day nobody hardly crosses that road."

The notice of motion (NOM) the committee was discussing also asked for a review of signal timings.

Wilmslow councillor Iain Macfarlane (Ind) said: "On Alderley Road, very near to Wilmslow High School, at great expense there was a series of active travel measures put in a couple of years ago and one is a zebra crossing system which is meant for the safety of the children.

"The timing of the crossing is so slow that the children don't even bother going to the crossing itself, they wait along the road from it and just leg it across when there's a gap in the traffic. This is just defeating the whole point of it, it has to be speeded up."

Congleton councillor Suzie Akers Smith (Ind), who proposed the NOM, said: "Why should a person sat in their nice warm car listening to Oasis be sat there enjoying themselves while you're there with three kids and your dog trying to cross the road?"

The committee unanimously voted to review the council's approach to traffic signal timings and the criteria for the installation of zebra crossings and light controlled crossings and other crossings such as refuge islands.

A report will go to a future meeting of the committee.

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