RESIDENTS of a Forest village gathered last weekend over the lack of a safe place to cross the road.

People in Aylburton staged a mass crossing in the village over the busy A48 on Saturday, from the ancient cross monument in the centre of the village to the village hall.

According to the residents, 12,000 lorries and cars drive through Aylburton every day, a village of 700 residents with two pubs, two churches, a primary school, a playing field and a village hall.

The protest comes after residents have waited nearly 70 years for a pedestrian crossing - first asking the Highways Authority to install a zebra crossing in 1953.

“GCC needs to take immediate action to make our communities safer,” says Mark Topping, FODDC Cllr for Lydney West & Aylburton and the chair of Aylburton Parish Council.

“We need safe places to cross and a 20 mph limit wherever people live.”