Highways chiefs have reassured residents concerned about the lack of audible beeps at certain crossings and pledged to improve older sites in a bid to reduce accidents.

At a recent Leyland East area committee members of the public had demanded answers on the lack of audible signals at the Churchill Way crossing and also one on Golden Hill Lane next to Morrisons.

Lancashire County councillor Matthew Tomlinson explained that highways guidelines advised against audible beeps at 'staggered' crossings where pedestrians were halfway across a main road.

He said: "In the case of Churchill Way, this is a 'staggered' crossing of the dual carriageway and pedestrians may be crossing the half on the McDonald's side when vehicles are moving on the other side adjacent to the car park.

"The crossing on Golden Hill Lane is another example. An audible signal could mislead a visually impaired pedestrian into crossing the half where the vehicles are moving.

"In these cases we fit the tactile cones to the underside of the push button unit."

Coun Tomlinson compared the Golden Hill Lane and Churchill Way crossings with one at St Andrews and Towngate, where pedestrians had questioned the timing of the audible beep.

He added: "This junction, which has an audible beep, has pedestrian crossings on all approaches and all traffic is stationary when the pedestrian stage operates. The current timing is well within national guidelines.

"In recent years we have started to fit both audible and tactile on such layouts. Other older sites will be retro-fitted as appropriate."

"These sorts of traffic signals are vitally important to help people move around busy town centres – which we hope Leyland will continue to become."