THREE hundred people have signed a petition calling for a crossing to be installed on a busy Weymouth road.

Campaigners in Southill say that the young and old are particularly at risk of being hit by a car trying to cross busy Radipole Lane between the shops and the post office.

They claim elderly people in nearby residential homes are too scared to go across the road to collect their pensions and that parents are forced to drive their children to Southill Primary School rather than let them walk.

Weymouth and Portland borough councillor David Harris is leading the campaign to get a pedestrian crossing installed.

He said today: "At the moment, people are having to cross the road from one part of the estate to get to the post office, which is a particular problem as there are two old people's homes there.

"I know that all the residents in one of the homes, Marchesi House in Poplar Close, have already signed the petition. Many of them don't go to the post office any more because they are too scared.

"People on the other side of the road have to cross to get to more shops and Southill Primary School.

"It's created problems around the school, as more pupils are being driven in by their parents because it's not safe to walk, which means there are more cars turning up every day. We are looking to try and get a crossing at the bottom of the dip in the road, near the present bus stop, though it is quite difficult to find the best site.

"There haven't been any accidents yet, but we don't want to wait till that happens. There have been some near misses."

Coun Harris also said that he and the two other councillors in the ward covering Southill, Andy Hutchings and Mike Byatt, have submitted a five-year transport plan for the area to the borough council, which includes the proposed crossing, but they want action to be taken on the crossing soon.

Coun Harris added: "We have 300 signatures on our petition already and that's taking just one signature from each household.

"And my team of helpers are carrying on collecting more signatures until the end of next week.

"With new houses being developed and the traffic increasing, this situation will get more and more difficult.

"I will be presenting the petition to the full council meeting on April 25 and I'm hoping we will have up to 400 signatures by then."