STUDENTS staged a mass protest to urge Dorset County Council to put in a zebra crossing before someone gets hurt at their college.

Weymouth College students and staff, together with those from Westfield Arts College and St John’s School, staged the protest to urge county council decision makers to put a zebra crossing in place at Cranford Avenue to make the crossing safer.

Staff and students at the college say there have been a number of near misses as people try to cross the road and they say the crossing can be particularly dangerous for wheelchair users.

However, Dorset County Council said that surveys show that most drivers stop for students to cross and the college is below the threshold needed for a lollipop man or lady.

Up until last year the college had a school crossing patrol person but they retired and as no one came forward to take on the position, funding was withdrawn. But staff at Weymouth College say a permanent crossing is needed at all times, as students come and go most of the day and at night for evening classes.

Weymouth College has a total of 3,500 students who use the crossing, 600 of these attend evening classes and so have to cross the road in the dark. In addition to this, there are 180 students from St John ’s that use the crossing and 25 from Westfield’s sixth form college based at the Weymouth college site.

Principal Nigel Evans said: “We ideally want a zebra crossing, but as a temporary measure until that’s achieved, if Dorset County Council want to make sure no-one gets badly injured we need big signs making motorists more aware that people are crossing and they need to go more slowly.”

He added: “It would be tragic if we had to wait until someone is injured in an accident before anything is done to make the crossing safer.”

Councillors Ian Roebuck and Cathy Page-Nash were also at the protest and will be taking the campaign forward to press Dorset County Council to take action.

Rob Camp, road safety officer for Dorset County Council, said: "We recently completed the latest of several surveys outside the college to see if a school crossing patrol was needed, but the score was well below the requirement. Most drivers stopped for the parents and children when they crossed, although there were plenty of available gaps in traffic flow anyway.”

He added: “We have not received a formal request for a zebra crossing at the location at this time. We ask that all requests for pedestrian crossings are channelled through the appropriate town or parish council. If your council supports the proposal, we ask that they contact us directly.”

People can go to dorsetforyou.com and search for traffic management for more information.

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