It is made out of drainpipes, party balloons and lino and is “a bit Blue Peter” but this “pop-up” zebra crossing is as good as the real thing when it comes to stopping traffic.
The £50 device, which takes less than a minute to set up, was created by father-of-three Yannick Read in his garage out of frustration at his local council.
Mr Read, 41, said he turned inventor after the pleas of parents at his children’s school for a proper crossing were turned down by Kingston, which claimed it would cost £12,000.
So Mr Read designed his own at a fraction of the cost. “It’s entirely convincing when it’s down on the road, even if it is a bit Blue Peter,” he said. He is now keen to share his expertise with other parents.
Although his tongue-in-cheek version is “almost certainly highly illegal”, he said, the issue behind it is deadly serious.
He said he was “incensed” when Kingston said there was no need for a crossing outside Alexandra Infant School and St Paul’s C of E Junior School, which are next to each other.
“Like many other schools in London, it’s chaotic at pick-up times, but there is no crossing outside the entrance,” he said. “We’ve had a child knocked over in the past six months and at a neighbouring school a child was killed.”
Mr Read said he, his wife Eleanor and children, Noah, eight, Bertie, five, and Olive, three caused “pandemonium” when he tested his crossing on Abbey Road, next to the one from The Beatles album cover.
“We were moved on by a man from Westminster council who told us to ‘desist immediately’. After that we set it up outside the school in Kingston. It worked perfectly and cars stopped every time to let the children cross without any problems.”
Mr Read, who works for an ethical motoring firm, said he hoped the pop-up crossing would “shame” Kingston council into taking action.
The council denied it had refused the request for a crossing, saying it was still looking into the application.
