Puffin crossing near Hartlepool primary school gets green light

Hartlepool Borough Council neighbourhood services committee approved bringing in the traffic light based puffin crossing by St Aidan’s School in Stockton Road.

A puffin crossing is a pedestrian crossing with traffic lights which go green again only when no more pedestrians are detected on the crossing by infrared detectors and mats.

The crossing will be introduced on the road immediately North East of the Loyalty Road junction, and close to where a school crossing patrol currently operates.

Coun Brenda Loynes said ‘the sooner it is installed the better’ and council officers said they aim to get it in place for the new school year in September.

Tony Hanson, council assistant director for environment and neighbourhood services, said a crossing has been wanted for a number of years despite some objections.

He said: “Several requests have been received from ward members for a light controlled crossing in the vicinity of this school for a number of years.

“It is proposed therefore to introduce a puffin crossing on this section of carriageway.

“Warning signs will also be introduced to support and advise the travelling public of the changes going forward.”

Double yellow lines will also be introduced on the north side of Stockton Road in response to comments received in the consultation.

An initial consultation showed 74 people were in favour of the crossing, and 4 against, although this was part of a wider consultation exercise which also included proposals for Westbrooke Avenue and other parts of Stockton Road.

Residential properties in close proximity to the crossing and the school were subsequently sent consultation letters and detailed plans of the scheme with two further objections submitted.

One of these involved requesting an independent safety audit to be carried out, which subsequently took place and identified the crossing could benefit from moving slightly further East along the road, which council officers said can be done without impacting details of the scheme.

A report from Mr Hanson added the scheme does not intend to replace the existing school crossing patrol officer and the pelican crossing will further improve road safety.

The puffin crossing is estimated to cost approximately £50,000, and will be funded from existing council allocated funding for 2018/19.

A decision on the crossing was initially on the agenda for a meeting last month but councillors moved to defer the decision for further consultation.

Nic Marko , Local Democracy Reporting Service