§ 29. Mr. Farrasked the Minister of Transport if he will arrange for the construction of a subway on the A.46 Leicester to Coventry road at Narborough, in place of the existing zebra crossing.
§ Vice-Admiral Hughes HallettThe use of the present crossing is small and expenditure on the provision of a subway 1258 would not be justified. We will consider the possibility of making this a panda crossing when the effectiveness of this type of crossing has been assessed in the light of the present experiments with it.
§ Mr. FarrIs my hon. and gallant Friend aware that the views he expresses are entirely contrary to those expressed by the Leicestershire County Council, the chief constable of Leicester and Rutland, the Narborough Parish Council and the chairman of the Narborough school board of governors? In view of that united expression of opinion on the need to put a subway or a bridge at this very dangerous spot, will my hon. and gallant Friend consider the matter again?
§ Vice-Admiral Hughes HallettThe fact remains that the average number of pedestrians using the crossing—which was watched the other day—is only 27 per hour, less than one person every two minutes. Furthermore, out of, I think, 29 accidents in this area since the beginning of 1959, only three are known to have had any direct relation with the crossing at all. We realise that the crossing is used largely by schoolchildren, and for this reason we have suggested to the parish council that it might introduce a school-crossing patrol.