A ROW over road safety near a quarry has moved up a gear with protesters calling on Prime Minister Tony Blair to step in.

Parents of pupils at St Brendan's RC Primary School, Harwood, have submitted an online petition to the Downing Street website calling for traffic calming measures to control quarry lorries using Brook Fold Lane.

They are calling for a ban on quarry operator James Booth's lorries using the lane while youngsters are being taken to and picked up from school.

But people living in the lane have hit back, saying it is unnecessary and would do more harm than good.

And another petition has already collected 650 signatures from people calling for the quarry road to be resurfaced and for measures such as flashing speed warning lights to make the road safer.

Kathleen Kavanagh, aged 60, of Brook Fold Lane, said: "The people of Brook Fold Lane haven't requested these things. We don't want speed humps or flashing lights.

"I've lived on the lane for 33 years and there has never been an accident."

James Booth has owned the quarry since 1976 and has been backfilling the site with waste for six years.

It abides by a self-imposed 10mph speed restriction on the road and has committed to resurfacing it.

Miss Kavanagh said: "If they restrict the hours of operation, it will take twice as long to fill it."

She said many of those who signed the petition do not live nearby.

But Andrea Murphy, aged 37, who walks her children Abigail, 10, and Amelia, six, to the school each morning, said the lorries were causing serious problems and often blocked the road.

"I've seen regular incidents where they've been mounting the pavement near the crossing by the school," she said.

"We understand it's a quarry road but it is also the main entrance to the school and it is absolute chaos."

She distributed a letter to parents and has added the electronic petition calling for restrictions on the movement of lorries to 10 Downing Street.

Landfill licence holder Matthew Booth said: "Sometimes parents are obviously rushing and there's no place to park so they have parked two or three abreast blocking access to our vehicles."

Mr Booth said the original school access had been from Hardy Mill Road but that parents had started using Brook Fold Lane because it was more convenient.