KENDAL residents and churchgoers have won their fight for a rethink over traffic lights at a busy road junction in the town.

Cumbria county councillors have bowed to public pressure and agreed that a pedestrian crossing should be included in new traffic controls at the Windermere Road/Burneside Road junction.

Members of the South Lakeland local committee heard that, in practice, people now had only two seconds to cross the road after traffic lights switched from green to red.

Coun Dave Clarke (Kendal Strickland and Fell) presented a 650-name petition from local residents angry about the traffic lights and the removal of a traffic island which, he claimed, made it virtually impossible to safely cross the road.

Councillors heard pedestrian crossing controls had not been included in the scheme because walkers could be put at risk from drivers coming from the nearby Union Tavern pub car park.

But Coun Clarke said: "If we can't devise a way of warning those vehicles so they don't drive out into pedestrians, then it's a sad job."

Councillors ordered a report on how the traffic lights could be adapted to include crossing signals for pedestrians.

It is hoped housebuilder Russell Armer, which paid for the traffic lights as part of the planning consent for its new housing development at Briery Meadows, off Burneside Road, will foot the bill for the changes.

Residents welcomed the decision.

Harry Allen, a member of nearby Stricklandgate Methodist Church, said the junction represented a hazard to children as well as elderly people.

"There are a lot of children crossing the road, but it' s difficult when there is no indication when they can safely go.

A green man light will show them when it's safe to cross."

Retired Methodist minister, the Rev Norman Pickering, added: " We are grateful that local concerns are being taken account of."

Some councillors claimed the traffic lights were unnecessary.

Coun Peter Jackson said they seemed to have created "more chaos on the junction than ever before", while Coun Jim Bland advocated scrapping the lights rather than "throwing good money after bad" by adding a pedestrian facility.