PARENTS who have waited two years for a crossing to be built on a “criminally dangerous” road have ended up with two.

Redbridge Council finally began work on two pedestrian crossings in St Barnabas Road on Monday (October 24) after a two-year fight by parents, schools, nurseries and councillors.

The first is being built near Woodbridge High School in Woodford Green, while the other is due to serve Churchfields School, Mill Grove, and KidsOwn nurseries in South Woodford.

The Woodford Green crossing was first commissioned in 2014 as a planning condition attached to the expansion of Woodbridge High School.

But there was some dispute over its location after parents and opposition councillors in South Woodford were defiant it should be built near the junction with Gordon Road, because of dangerous drivers and a blind corner.

Cllr Lloyd Duddridge, who became the first South Woodford Labour councillor in years in May’s Roding by-election, claims the crossing saga became a “two or nothing situation”.

He said: “We were promised this at the beginning of the school year and it didn’t happen.

“So I have been pushing cabinet members to make sure it got done.

“The Woodbridge crossing was a planning condition, so we had to build that one plus the other one, or nothing at all.

“There was some hold up, and people have been waiting for this for a long time, but it should be finished soon.

“We can’t play around with children’s safety, because there’s no time scale on a car accident.”

His Liberal Democrat colleague for Roding Cllr Gwyneth Deakins disputed claims her campaign for the Gordon Road crossing was the reason for the “hold up”.

She said: “It’s about time too.

“All I have done in the last two years is reflect the views of local people, who wanted a crossing near Gordon Road.

“That is absolutely no excuse for how long they’ve taken on this.”

Mother-of-three Dawn Hunter who campaigned fiercely for the Gordon Road junction said she is “so pleased the council has finally got round to making St Barnabas road safer to cross”.

But she added: “It’s taken over two years to get this crossing and now it’s arrived my children aged three, seven and five don’t need it that much anymore.

“There are still other pressing road safety issues in the area though, like the lack of crossings where the North Circular slip road enters Maybank and Latchett Road.

“And the number of drives who think it’s safe to drive and text.”

The crossings are due to be finished in the next two weeks.