Worried mum Hayley Alderson says people trying to cross Botley Road, Oxford, during the current roadworks are taking their lives in their hands.

She said: "There's a whole lot of parents who are up in arms about it. Somebody's going to be killed."

traffic on the busy road has been controlled with temporary traffic lights for several weeks while work on the major road improvement scheme takes place. But mum-of-three Miss Alderson, of Abbey Road, says residents have no safe places to cross the road.

She makes two return journeys across Botley Road each day to take her sons Sam, six, and Jack, four, to school while wheeling her daughter Katie, one, in a pushchair.

But now her journey has become an obstacle course which involves skirting her pram past barriers and sandbags. Things got worse after a temporary island in the road was removed.

She said: "Normally we have to wait until somebody takes pity on us."

Maureen Jones, also of Abbey Road, said her five-year-old son, Louis, was clipped by a bicycle crossing Botley Road as roadworks were taking place.

She said: "Trying to get them across is chaos."

Mike Rant, chief traffic engineer for Oxfordshire County Council, said: "I will speak to contractors and will spend some time to see if there are any arrangements we can make to help the situation."

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