Pupils have presented a petition to Zac Goldsmith MP, demanding a “dangerous” zebra crossing in Richmond be converted to traffic lights.

Holy Trinity Primary School pupils and parents presented the petition to the Richmond Park MP on Wednesday, April 23.

Parents, staff and the pupils from Holy Trinity, nearby Marshgate Primary and St Elizabeth’s, signed the petition about the crossing at the Sheen Road junction with Sheen Common Drive.

Mr Goldsmith threw his weight behind the campaign and said it has his full support.

He said: “The case put forward by the children and their parents is very convincing, and I absolutely support their petition.

“I have taken the issue up with councillors and officers.”

Parent Lucy Darke said she was delighted with Mr Goldsmith’s response to the petition, which gathered nearly 400 signatures in two-and-a-half weeks, stressing how important it was to prevent a future fatality.

She said: “It went really well and was as much as we could have hoped for.

“We are hugely terrified that the crossing could cause a fatality at any minute.

“It has been quite an easy campaign to get support for because if you talk to anyone, everybody has a story to tell of a near miss.

“It will be a small child who gets knocked down, which would be tragic, and we have to prevent that from happening.”

The three schools have more than 1,000 children, with the zebra crossing being the only pedestrian crossing for more than 1km in either direction.

School governor Michele Marcus described the petition as a “really good start” to the campaign.

She said: “We have started to make headway thanks to the number of signatures received in such a short space of time.

“It is promising and we are closer to getting what we want.

“Every day you see drivers unsure whether or not to go or pedestrians not sure if they should cross or wait.”