RESIDENTS from Swarthmoor and Pennington have finally won a 17-year battle for a safe crossing over the busy A590.

Councillors and residents launched the campaign for a pelican crossing on the road in 1985.

Despite numerous protests and public meetings, the Highways Agency refused.

In 1997 the agency said that there had been no injury-recorded accidents in the last five years and a survey found "no single defined location where people prefer to cross."

In 1997 The Westmorland Gazette backed the campaign for a crossing and the following year the Highways Agency agreed to install £250,000 of safety improvements on the road - but still refused a crossing.

Instead, a pedestrian refuge was built in the centre of the road and the two carriageways were narrowed to prevent overtaking.

Campaigners welcomed the improvements but continued to plead for a crossing on the road.

This week the Highways Agency has announced it has agreed to install a puffin crossing at Cross-a-Moor.

Head teacher at Pennington Primary School, Jeni Boothman, has been behind the campaign for more than ten years.

She said: "I can remember standing on the A590 with a group of children with banners walking up and down campaigning for a crossing more than ten years ago.

"They put the traffic island in and that just made things worse as the children were crossing to the middle of the road but they were scared as the traffic was zooming around them.

"If the crossing is installed it will make a big improvement but they did say it was going to be done in January and now it is March, so I will believe it when I see it."

South Lakeland district councillor for Swarthmoor and Low Furness and chairman of Pennington Parish Council David Foot said: "We hope the crossing will improve things because, apart from putting a bridge over the road or a tunnel under it, there is nothing else that can be done."

A spokesman for the Highways Agency said: "The agency's reasons for putting in a crossing are met now.

The most important thing for me to say is that we have been listening to what the locals want and we are not just doing it for safety but because the road divides the community."

The work on the pelican crossing will start on March 13.