A BUSY road in a York village could be getting a new pedestrian crossing, after a senior councillor heard pleas from worried residents.

More than 1000 people signed a petition asking for a zebra or pedestrian crossing on York Road, Haxby, to make the road safer for the scores of school children and elderly people who use the area daily.

Cllr Peter Dew, City of York’s executive member for transport, asked council staff to start looking at whether a crossing was justified, and where one should go.

Marie Dowling started the petition after a loved one was clipped by a car on the road and narrowly escaped injury. At Thursday’s meeting, she said she had heard of several near misses involving children since she began the campaign.

Ms Dowling added: “York Road is a mile long but has no safe crossing.

“My concern is that there will be a fatality. We are asking for York Road’s safety to be looked at as a matter of priority.”

Any traffic assessment needs to be done between 8am and 8.30am, she added, when the road is busiest and children are on their way to Headlands, Ralph Butterfield and Joseph Rowntree schools.

Her pleas were backed by Haxby councillors Tony Richardson and Ian Cuthbertson, and after the meeting Ms Dowling said she would be looking closely at when transport staff assess York Road.

“I’m not going to let it drop.

“Like any road it has its busy times, and it coincides with when the kids are trying to get to school.”

Written reports produced for Cllr Dew’s decision session reveal a York Road crossing was requested as long ago as 2013, but at the time there was no money available.

Three new crossings were funded in 2016, but York Road did not make the cut at that point. Officials now say the high level of support for a new crossing means they should start assessments and surveys on the road.