Councillors question pedestrian safety in call for town centre crossing points

FROME Town Council has written to Somerset Council to ask why two crossing points cannot be installed at Boyle Cross, to enable pedestrians to safely cross the road.

At the full town council meeting on Wednesday 4th October, cllr Nick Dove raised concern about pedestrian safety and the lack of crossing points from Boyle Cross to the George Hotel and from the Boyle Cross to the bottom of Stony Street, following Somerset Council’s decision for these not to be installed three years ago.

Cllr Nick Dove said, “The Boyle Cross space was redeveloped and at that time, we were going to have two courtesy crossing points. Just before they happened, Somerset Council highways department said we couldn’t have those crossing points.

“That was a while ago and this week I have seen on three separate occasions, people trying to cross the road and step back. It’s really, really dangerous. There’s nowhere to cross safely from one side to the other. Can we formally please write to Somerset Council, as a council, and ask them to explain why that can’t be changed and why we can’t have those, and ideally a personal attendance at the next meeting.”

The mayor of Frome, cllr Philip Campagna, also raised concern about the ‘sloped’ steps at the Boyle Cross, following an accident one of his constituents had.

“The steps leading from that side to cross over to the George, they’re actually sloped,” says cllr Philip Campagna, “I was contacted by one of my constituents who fell there because it creates a sort of optical illusion and you can slide down it, so that’s another issue we could look at.”