PARENTS and teachers have called on the county council to move or improve a pedestrian crossing after a young girl was hit by a car last week.
The girl was struck by a silver Volkswagen Golf at the crossing outside Donyngs Leisure Centre in Linkfield Lane, Redhill, at around 9am last Wednesday .
As previously reported in the Mirror, parents of children at St Joseph's School in the same road have expressed concern about traffic in the area with many saying it is becoming dangerous.
Now they have called on Surrey County Council to either move the crossing closer to the school where it would be more obvious to drivers, or to scrap the crossing and introduce traffic lights instead.
Parent Laura Farlow, a 27-year-old Merstham housewife who was at the crossing when the girl was hit, said: "It's been a problem for years and years.
"The road needs a safer crossing. I was on the crossing when the girl was hit. That crossing isn't safe enough because it's right on the bend. I phoned the council as soon as I got home after it happened."
Full-time mum Sophie Cooper, 40, from Redhill, said: "They need more traffic lights or a proper speed bump or something. If they're going to keep the crossing they need to make it higher so cars have to slow down."
Along with parents, the head teacher of St Joseph's School, Elizabeth Walsh, said something had to be done to make the road safer for children.
She said: "We don't have a crossing patrol person any more so it would be better to have it [the crossing] closer to the school."
The council insists the crossing is in the right place.
Spokesman Joy Ridley said: "We have carried out research regarding the siting of this crossing and have confirmed that it is in the right place because this is the point at which the majority of people wish to cross the road. If we were to move it, it is highly possible that people would continue to cross without a crossing, which would be less safe."
She did add that steps are being taken to improve the parking problem outside the school.
"Our Reigate and Banstead Local Committee approved a statutory consultation for new parking restrictions in Linkfield Lane outside this school at its meeting in December. Subject to the outcome of the consultation it is planned to implement the restrictions in 2013."
