ANGRY parents are calling for a meeting with highways chiefs over concerns about the safety of their children crossing busy Bradford Road in Guiseley.

Parents from both Guiseley School and Tranmere Park Primary School have written to city council highways chief Jim McArthur, asking him to come up with a scheme to make Bradford Road safer - and this week they unveiled a petition with more than 1,000 names on backing their calls for a pedestrian crossing.

As previously reported, the road, which is crossed by pupils at both schools, has been without a crossing patrol warden for six months. Leeds City Council has been unable to find a replacement and parents fear that the volume and speed of traffic down the road is such that a pedestrian crossing is now needed.

One of the parents behind the campaign, Fiona Harris, said: "We could have got a lot more names because the petition has gathered momentum in the last few days, but we decided that we had already made our point and wanted to get things moving.

"We have written to Jim McArthur asking him to look again at the road again. I know that last time they said that the road did not meet the right criteria for a crossing, but we have got a lot of support from the community and feel that something needs to be done to make sure our children are safe.

"We then want Mr McArthur to meet with a small group of parents and show us what he has come up with. We will present the petition to him then as we didn't want to just send it to the council only for it to get lost or buried somewhere.

"Tranmere Park have already offered us a hall for the meeting. We just have to wait and see what the council come up with."

Copies of their letter have also been sent to MP Paul Truswell (Lab) and Aireborough Councillors Graham Latty (Con) and Mike and Moira Dunn (both Lab).

l Meanwhile, a retiring crossing warden has been honoured by pupils and staff at the school he has served for nine-and-a-half years.

More than £100 was collected at St Oswald's Primary School to buy 70-year-old Peter Mellor a bird bath and bird table for his retirement. Pupils also made a huge card for him, carrying 340 signatures, and presented it at last Friday morning's assembly.

As reported two weeks ago, Peter helps hundreds of pupils from St Oswald's and other schools across the busy Queensway-Towngate junction in Guiseley and he is concerned that no-one has come forward to take his place.

Anyone interested in the position should contact (0113) 2475589.