A MUM’S plea for a safe crossing for children on a busy Headington rat run was greeted with thunderous applause.

Gena Leveson appealed to Oxfordshire County Council for a safe crossing point in Quarry Hollow, for children going to and from Headington Quarry Foundation Stage School.

The mum-of-three told a full council meeting motorists and HGV drivers speed down the narrow road and often mount the narrow pavements to squeeze through.

She added: “It is a rat run. The pavements are narrow and inclined towards the road, with no kerb.

“There’s no safe crossing point for children. The vast majority of traffic that cuts through here is clearly not local .

“The existing speed bumps are, in the county council’s own words, “gentle”.

“It’s a thriving place to live which is brilliant but there are a lot of people.”

Headington Quarry Foundation Stage School moved to the Quarry Hollow site – which also houses St Andrew’s Church of England Primary School’s reception class – in 2003 from its original home in Beech Road.

Now the school provides free education places for 15 hours a week for children aged three to five years old.

Both of Mrs Leveson’s daughters, Mia, seven, and five-year-old Rosie, went to the school and her son Elias, two, will be going next year.

The 39-year-old’s petition calls for the council to install a crossing before a child or cyclist is hit and claims current speed bumps are not effective.

She told the the council: “Given the petition focuses only on one street the community support for action is clear.

“I am asking you to please provide a safe crossing place for our children and safe routes for cyclists and pedestrians.”

The online petition, which hopes traffic calming measures such as pedestrian crossing would encourage more people to walk their children to school, attracted more than 600 signatures.

When Mrs Leveson, of Ramsay Road, presented her 640-strong petition to the full council at a meeting last Tuesday the whole chamber erupted in applause.

Oxfordshire County Council spokeswoman Emily Reed said the crossing plea would be considered.

She added: “The petition was presented at an Oxfordshire County Council meeting and will be considered in due course.”