'Dog's breakfast' as council builds £130,000 crossing outside couple's new driveway

Thanks to the blunder, the crossing outside Angela and Robin Wray's home has been left unused for two years, with orange hoods over the lights.

But although the Wrays have won permission to use their drive, the council says it is still deciding whether to switch the lights on.

Mr and Mrs Wray were granted permission to build a drive outside their home in Holmfirth, three years ago, but Kirklees Council built the crossing just four months later.

They have since embarked on a three-year battle which has seen the authority ban them from using the drive - despite originally granting them the permission to put it in place.

Retired teachers Robin, 66, and Angela, 63, applied for their initial permission from the council to have the work done three years ago and within three weeks were told it would be allowed.

Mrs Wray said: "The crossing was first mooted by the council in 2002 and they were considering a number of sites.

"They then decided they would like to put it in front of our house in early 2006. What made it even worse was that it was near to a complex junction and we've not had an accident here in 10 years so this would just make it more dangerous.

"After objections from residents and some concerns raised by councillors, it went back to be discussed and we didn't hear anything more about it for months before we applied for permission to have our drive built.

"We had lived at this house for 30 years and wanted to have more convenient access to the house. By June 2007 we were granted permission and started doing the work on it as well as an extension to the back of the house."

The council then told the couple four months later, in October 2007, that they were once again intent on putting the crossing directly outside their drive.

Mrs Wray, a mother of three, said: "That's when we started getting threatening letters saying that we couldn't open our drive because we didn't have the permission to open the drive. Everybody that we spoke to just thought it was absolutely crazy."

The crossing was installed in spring 2008 but orange hoods were placed over the lights and it has still never been turned on over two years later.

In September 2009 Kirklees issued a "stopping-up" order to try and prevent the Wrays using their own drive, but the couple appealed and a public inquiry last month ruled that they could continue to use it.

Further embarrassment was heaped on the council this week when it was revealed that 130,000 had been spent on the redundant crossing.

Mrs Wray said: "I don't know why they have built the crossing before getting the required stopping-up order. To risk such a huge amount of money must be sheer madness. It's a mess."

She added: "The council clearly agree that it would be dangerous to have the puffin crossing active where it is now, otherwise they wouldn't have put in the stopping-up order against us using our drive.

"Our anxiety is that we might cause any injuries to pedestrians. The people using that crossing would be put at risk. We don't want to be in a position where we could cause harm to someone.

"We feel as though we have been bullied and threatened by the council and they have been determined to get their way. We feel as though they were certain we would just capitulate."

Kirklees deputy leader Coun Ken Smith described the debacle as a "dog's breakfast" at a cabinet meeting and Coun David Sheard said that the decision to give the Wrays planning permission had been a mistake.

Mr Sheard, cabinet member for highways, said: "When the request for planning permission came in, no-one at Highways pointed out that a crossing was planned there."

The council now faces the choice of removing the crossing at a further cost of 30,000 or trying to switch the lights on for 3,000 - which the Wrays deemed "untenable".

Coun Nigel Patrick said: "The crossing has cost a lot of money and if it was dismantled now that money would have been wasted."

A final decision will now be delegated to the council's area committee for the Holme Valley.

Prior to the building of their drive, the Wrays could park on the street outside their house - but zig zag lines painted when the crossing was instlled have now ruled that out.