A safer crossing for children and wheelchair users over to Brooklands Community Park is one step closer.

More than 300 people from Woking, Elmbridge and Runnymede signed the petition relating to footpath 24 which goes along Sopwith Drive in Byfleet, north of the junction with Viscount Gardens.

It runs along the borders of both Elmbridge and Woking borough councils so any changes would need the backing of both boroughs.

Woking Joint Committee put it on its programme of potential schemes a few years ago and on Monday (November 26) Elmbridge Local Committee voted to support the call for a feasibility study into what could be done.

Marion Malcher, footpath officer for Byfleet, West Byfleet and Pryford Residents’ Association, presented the petition to Surrey County Council and Elmbridge councillors.

She said there needed to be a safer place for children and disabled people to cross Sopwith Drive to get to Brooklands Community Park, a nursery and the shops.

She said: “A crossing near the playground would make it much safer for everyone.”

She said the footpath was “inaccessible” for wheelchairs and pushchairs adding: “Crossing the road in this area is extremely hazardous. Surely we can move things forward.”

SCC highways officers have suggested that both Elmbridge Local Committee and Woking Joint Committee “prioritise and promote” a study of what can be done to build a new crossing to Brooklands Community Park.

Cllr Tim Oliver, Elmbridge council leader, and newly elected leader of Surrey County Council Conservative Group, said: “It’s an area that needs to be looked at. We will take that away and hopefully between us we can find a joint solution.”