HUNDREDS of residents living in and around a main Southampton street are calling for road safety near their homes to be stepped up.

People living near Lodge Road in Portswood want to see an improved pedestrian crossing on the busy street and redeveloped paving.

Daily Echo: Click below to see a video of today's headlines in sixty seconds

The 600-strong petition will be handed to the Southampton mayor Councillor Brian Parnell today.

Lodge Road is the main link between The Avenue and Thomas Lewis Way heading toward the M27 motorway.

Suzanne Wright, who has compiled the petition, believes improvements must be made to ensure a serious accident is avoided.

Having received the petition it will then be down to the Cabinet member for environment and transport Councillor Matthew Dean to consider.

Suzanne, 42, said: “This petition is to ask the councillors in Southampton to re-think the layout of Lodge Road with particular reference to the zebra crossing.

“There have been so many near misses it’s time that something is done.We are calling on the council to move the zebra crossing and to upgrade it to a signalised crossing and consider re-developing part of the paving.”

Bevois councillor Jacqueline Rayment pledged her support to Suzanne’s campaign, she said: “Lodge Road takes a huge volume of traffic.

“People and the council may argue that there is already a crossing on the road, however, those crossings have to be in the right place for both the traffic and the pedestrians trying to cross it.”