AN outraged father has slammed council chiefs for leaving a 'dangerous' school crossing in Sale unmanned for months, saying families are ‘dicing with death’ on a daily basis.

Steve Harrop, of Walton Road, has been lobbying Trafford Council to develop a long term strategy for the crossing at Eastway and Washway Road since lollipop man John Naggs retired in November.

Steve, who uses the crossing on his four-year-old daughter’s school run, said that families are forced to weave between cars stopped bumper to bumper on the crossing and dodge vehicles running red lights. Motorists frequently flout the Highway Code by stopping in the junction’s yellow box and the short crossing time leaves it ‘impossible’ to get to the other side before the light change.

“The council has allowed a very dangerous crossing used daily by young schoolchildren and parents to be unmanned since early November,” said Steve.

“It is an accident waiting to happen – there is going to be a tragedy. Just think of the poor parents – can’t the council see beyond budgets? These are lives we are talking about.”

The Eastway/Washway Road junction hit headlines last year when parents, fearing the dangers to their children's lives, campaigned against plans to axe the patrol. During this period, lollipop man John was hit by a van on the crossing. Trafford Council said this was an isolated incident and not a road safety issue. Shortly after, it made a U-turn on scrapping the patrol.

Steve said that simply replacing the patrol is not the answer.

He has made a number of suggestions to the council to alleviate the problem. These include moving the crossing by 30-40 yards, creating a distance between the busy junction and the crossing; setting up CCTV so that cars breaking the Highway Code can be fined; periodic police presence and electronic warning signs.

“The council has given scant regards to any of my strategies for making the crossing safer than it is at present,” he said.

“They haven’t even implemented a longer duration on the green man. It beggars belief that this was even set to 14 seconds, which wouldn’t even let Jessica Ennis clear the second half of the crossing in time.”

Trafford Council said that a replacement was appointed for the patrol pre-Christmas but that it had to re-advertise as the successful applicant pulled out of the process.

The council held a recruitment open day last Thursday at Coppice Library for school crossing patrol, cleaning and catering staff. The open day formed part of a wider recruitment drive for staff in this sector.

A spokesperson for Trafford Council said: “Posters advertising the post have been placed in local libraries, schools and community centres listing all our vacancies, these have also been taken to Tyntesfield Primary.”