A POOLE councillor has welcomed the first pedestrian crossing to be installed on a road where a seven-year-old boy died last year, but is pushing for more to be created.

Campaigners have been calling for safety improvements on Canford Heath’s Sherborn Crescent since Toby William Jefferson-Peters died following a collision with a car in October last year.

After a petition was signed by over 3,000 petition, Borough of Poole’s Transport Advisory Group (TAG) agreed to consider making an area around Ad Astra Infant School a 20mph zone, and to review the 30mph speed limit on the remainder of Sherborn Crescent and Canford Heath Road.

However, the council will be installing a zebra crossing in Sherborn Crescent, north of its junction with Chalbury Close, this year.

Ward councillor Sandra Moore said she was “really pleased” the road would finally be getting its first pedestrian crossing.

“It’s a start – it’s been on the list for some considerable time. It’s also going to link with a very popular footpath that goes through some open space.

“I’ve asked for a second zebra crossing to be installed in the school zone, between Yeatminster Road and Herstone Close, where there is already an informal crossing. I’m hoping this will be done next year as it would be well used.

“It’s difficult to know where to put these crossings as Sherborn Crescent is such a long road, however the one due to be installed is right in the middle.”

Cllr Moore added she might even ask for a third pedestrian crossing to be installed along the road.

Figures published by the Daily Echo recently showed 11 reported injury collisions occurred in Sherborn Crescent between October 2011 and September 2016, although speed was not a factor in any of these accidents.

Initial investigations into the fatal crash in October 2016 suggested speed and the road layout were not factors in the accident.

Poole council is also installing puffin crossings in several other locations across the borough.

These will be installed at: Herbert Avenue, between the junctions of Manor Avenue and Berkeley Avenue; High Street North, at its junction with Elizabeth Road, and Longfleet Road, north-east of its junction with Shaftesbury Road.

Alison Shelton, chief executive of Safewise, said a pedestrian crossing was "as good at reducing accidents as the behaviour of the people who use it allow it to be".

She added: "In the always-on, busy world we inhabit, none of us sets out in the morning to kill or be killed. Of course the completely unexpected can always happen, but whether driving, cycling or as a pedestrian we all have a responsibility to try to buy ourselves time to react through careful observation and early anticipation of potential dangers, creating space around us.

"Whilst SafeWise supports the introduction of any intervention that prevents collisions on the road, whatever it is and wherever it is placed, we believe that education is at the heart of road safety and it must start at the earliest age and ripple through the generations."