The Heart of Hackbridge is being turned into a "no go zone" for children and visually impaired people according to a former UK President of the National Federation of the Blind and former resident of the area.

Blind Labour parlimentary candidate for Sutton and Cheam Emily Brothers ventured over the border after campaigner Tracey Collins invited her to experience the new £1.4million crossing in the town centre.

Ms Brothers, who was accompanied by Mrs Collins and Michael Parsons, himself blind and the vice chairman of Sutton Vision.

After being assisted across the junction Ms Brothers said the crossing was defeating Sutton Council's objective of improving the area to help residents, traders and visitors to Hackbridge.

She said: "The newly designed shared space scheme is dangerous, particularly for children and blind people.

"The roads should be red, pavements beige and crossings white apparently.

"Yet the London Borough of Sadists has ended up with fifty shades of grey; that is likely to end in even more pain.

"From what campaigners explained to me, there is no colour contrast to help children or other pedestrians."

The principle behind shared spaces is pedestrians need to make eye contact with drivers to let them know to slow down.

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Campaigner Tracey Collins helps Emily Brothers across at one of the courtesy crossings

She said: "As a blind person using a white cane it wasn’t possible for me to locate the crossing points safely.

"There is no distinction between road and pavement, with the textured paving being limited, making it all quite hit and miss.

"I was particularly worried by the crossing over Hackbridge Road, as it is very wide and difficult for a blind person to maintain a straight line. I recall this being the case previously, but the zebra crossing provided some protection because drivers gave way to pedestrians.

Sutton Council is investigating making improvements to the road layout, introduced in July last year.

Following consultation, more signs are to be introduced at the junction, a school crossing officer will be employed at the site permanently and it is being looked at whether stronger colouring can be used at the six courtesy crossings. A 20mph zone could come into effect in March.

A spokesperson for Sutton Council said: "The Hackbridge Public Realm project was completed on Friday with the final installation of the parking bays adjacent to Saxon House.

"Following the Interim Safety Audit carried out in August, the council has introduced changes to the original scheme to improve the junction further and will continue to monitor its use by all users including those that are partially sighted or blind.

"This work has included the installation of a mini roundabout with arrows, give-way markings and lit signs; the installation of new roundabout ahead signs; the launch of a road safety campaign; and carrying out an audit of traffic speeds through the new junction.

"A final Stage 3 Safety Audit has now been commissioned. It will look at the safety of the completed scheme including the new mini roundabout.

"The Safety Audit will include a day time audit which will review the use of the pedestrian crossings in full use during afternoon peak hours to coincide with the finishing times of the school, and a night time audit, when the street lights are switched on.

"Now that the works are complete, an independent accessibility audit of the ‘as built’ scheme will also be undertaken within the next month. This will include assessing the needs of people who are blind or partially sighted."