A GROUP of Poole residents are celebrating after a pedestrian crossing has been built on a main road leading into the town centre.

Mount Pleasant Road, which links residents to Poole Park and two roundabouts, one taking road-users to Parkstone Road, and the other to Kingland Road and Seldown Bridge, now has a new crossing for older residents and families to use.

Valerie Old drew up a petition and with 142 signatures from people wanting the crossing, she took it to Poole council She says that it has been almost 16 months in the making, but it is marvellous to have it available for use, and everyone is very pleased their bid was successful.

Valerie added:“Mount Pleasant Road is a really dangerous road, as traffic comes from all directions, and car drive particularly fast when they come away from Poole town centre, making it a death-trap. Before the crossing was built, we you had to walk to the crossings next to each of the roundabouts, as cars are travelling too fast, and they just come shooting around the corner.

“There are a lot of older people who live close to the road, and thanks to Cllr Mark Howell, who took this to council, we now have our crossing after campaigning for it since June 2012.

Cllr Mark Howell, said: “I said to the residents that it would be helpful if they put together a petition, which I presented to the council, which was initially rejected the first time, because they said that it wasn’t a priority.

“However, I took it back and continued to push for it, and with our joint effort, in April 2013, I was able to tell Valerie and the other residents that their campaign had been successful.”