CALLS are growing stronger for a pedestrian crossing to be introduced on one of Prudhoe’s busiest roads, after a schoolboy was involved in a collision with a car.

Police said they were called to the bottom of South Road on Friday after a grey Mercedes collided with a nine-year-old cyclist at around 8.35am.

A spokeswoman for Northumbria Police said the boy was taken to hospital and later discharged with minor injuries, and the driver remained at the scene and assisted officers with inquiries.

South Road, which is used by children travelling to and from St Matthew’s Primary School, Prudhoe West First School, Highfield Middle School and Prudhoe Community High School, used to be manned by a crossing patrol officer, but it has been unmanned since summer, 2016.

The council has not been able to fill the post and councillors have been pushing for a pedestrian crossing to be installed on the road.

Coun. Ken Stow, county councillor for Prudhoe North, said plans for the crossing were on the county council’s traffic transport plan for 2019/20, which will be taken to the next Tynedale Local Area Council meeting for approval in mid February.

He said, once it had been approved, it should go ahead quickly, although he pointed out out that the area where the collision took place on Friday was further down the road than the area where a crossing would be installed, with the best place believed to be around the junction between South Road and Highfield Lane.

Coun. Stow said: “There’s an awful lot of will within the community for this to happen. There are masses of kids coming up and down there from three schools morning and evening, so it’s very important that we get this done.”