Earlier this month I wrote the Department for Transport after filming with ITV News about the time those with disabilities or mobility issues are given to safely cross roads at pedestrian crossing’s in England.
On January the 21st, 2026 I received a response in relation to this issue from Simon Lightwood MP who is the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Transport. and is responsible for overseeing the nations Roads.
In his response the Minister said that, “While the design and installation of pedestrian crossings is the responsibility of local authorities, as Mr Wood says the Department provides good practice guidance to them in Chapter 6 of the Traffic Signs Manual. It is available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/traffic-signs-mannual and includes advice on calculating timings. It also makes clear the importance of considering accessibility when designing facilities and reminds authorities of their duties under the Equality Act 2010″.
The Minister added that, ” It may help if I explain how crossing timings are calculated. The Green figure is not intended to be long enough to complete a crossing, but is an invitation to cross’, as set out in the Highway Code. This is followed by a period called the clearance which should always be long enough to allow someone leaving the kerb to complete the crossing before the lights change. There is then a period when all the lights are held on red, to provide extra safety and comfort.”
He concluded his response by saying that, ” Mr Wood may be interested to know that detection systems are widely available that can monitor the crossing area and automatically increase the amount of time available to complete the crossing if needed. These can be especially beneficial for people who may need extra time to cross. These systems have been in use for many years and local authorities are able to install them without reference to the Department”.
” If Mr Wood is concerned about the timings of sites near him, he should raise this with Herefordshire Council in the first instance” is what the Minister signed his response off with.
Those of you reading this will know by now that I did in fact write to the Cabinet Member for Roads and Regulatory Services at Herefordshire Council on January the 7th 2026, which was the same day that wrote to the Department for Transport about the same issue.
At time of writing this piece I had made the Member of Parliament for Hereford and South Herefordshire, Jesse Norman MP aware of my correspondence with the local authority, however I still have not heard anything back from the local authority with regards to this.
Do you enjoy reading my posts every week once they have been published then why not subscribe (if you haven’t already) and receive future ones direct to your inbox within just a few short minutes of publication.
Subscribe: https://just-being-cp.co.uk/
A thank you must also go to each and everyone of you, my regular loyal readers and social media followers who continually take the time out of your busy schedules to read my latest posts, it doesn’t go unnoticed and is of course very much appreciated.
Cam
Leave a Reply