An emotional plea has been made to improve pedestrian crossings at a ‘scary’ junction in Caversham.

The junction of Henley Road, Prospect Street and Westfield Road has become known as the Last Crumb junction since the Dodo Pub Company took over the old Prince of Wales pub in 2019.

Now, neighbours are calling for the pedestrian crossings to be improved in a petition signed by more than 1,000 people.

The petition was submitted at a Reading Borough Council meeting by Jane Lynch, a mum who lives in Newlands Avenue.

She said: “I use the Last Crumb junction virtually every time I leave the house.

“My daughter Jesse calls it the scary junction.

“Just taking my daughter to Westfield Playground with my baby in the buggy was a terrifying experience.

“There is no safe place for pedestrians to negotiate that junction.

“The only way is to know the sequence of the traffic lights and literally to run.”

READ MORE: Reading move to punish drivers stopping in yellow boxes to be decided

She added that the petition was delivered to 2,000 homes, with the council receiving 1,341 responses.

One signatory said: “I take my life in my own hands, please do something, my daughter and I nearly got knocked over there last week.”

Although pedestrians can cross the junction when red lights do show, none of the existing crossings are dedicated, with none of them being zebra crossings.

The other road crossings are quite far away. There is a zebra crossing near the end of Prospect Street, a controlled crossing at the Henley Road shopping precinct, and a zebra crossing at Peppard Road.

There are island crossings along these roads as well.

READ MORE: New road in Emmer Green named in honour of demolished pub

Jane continued by saying the junction is made dangerous due to driver behaviours.

She said : “It is an accident waiting to happen, I see near misses every single day.

“Cars are running red lights on almost every time the traffic lights change, only increasing the chance of a serious accident, and these motorists face no penalties.

“Do we really need to wait for someone to be killed or maimed there to actually do something?”

The petition was presented at a traffic management sub-committee meeting on Wednesday, November 9.

Councillor Matt Yeo (Labour, Caversham) pointed out that there may be a wait for upgrades to the junction, which could be tied to community infrastructure levy (CIL) for the 223 homes that will be built at Reading Golf Course.

READ MORE: Reading Golf Course plans approved despite 4000 objections 

A condition of the approval of the development was that builders Vistry Thames Valley would have to pay £50,000 for improvements to the Last Crumb Junction.

Cllr Paul Carnell (Conservative, Caversham Heights) said he has asked the council to look into making crossing improvements anyway.

He added: “Waiting for a serious accident doesn’t necessarily mean this council will act.”

Following the discussion, the committee unanimously agreed to add the petition to the junction’s entry into the ‘Requests for Traffic

Management Measures’ report, which lists resident requests for traffic management measures where there is no identified funding scheme for the proposals.

The petitioners call for safety measures at the junction will be considered by the council’s highways department.