“Unsafe” council plans to review and potentially remove pelican crossings in Barnet will put the elderly and disabled at risk, according to a charity chairman.

Barnet Council agreed last month to undertake a full-scale review of the borough’s 130 automated crossings with a view to improving traffic flow.

But Julia Hines, chairman of Age UK Barnet, believes the authority is putting the needs of motorists ahead of pedestrian safety.

She said: “It is all about traffic flow and not about road safety. I think it will be older people, children and the disabled who will suffer if pelican crossings are removed.”

Statistics from Transport for London (TfL) show there were nine deaths on Barnet roads in 2010 – the highest of any London borough.

In the same year there were 1,520 accidents resulting in personal injury – the second highest in Greater London.

Between 2000 and 2010, road accidents fell by 18 per cent in Barnet but that figure was significantly less the reduction across the whole of London, which saw a drop of 40 per cent.

Mrs Hines said: “I think this review is sending out the wrong message given our road safety record. Older people rely on these crossings where the know traffic has to stop to get around.

“If you are blind it is essential that you feel safe crossing the road and Zebra crossings just aren’t as safe.

“There may be a situation where they don’t remove any of them but even if that is the case, why are they spending so much money reviewing them all?”

The proposals, brought to the council’s cabinet by Totteridge Councillor Brian Coleman, were passed at a meeting on February 20.

Aims of the decision are to improve movement of traffic on the road network and review the installation of pelican crossings where their need may be out-dated.

But in the council officers’ report presented to members of the cabinet, the authority conceded that accidents may occur if and when crossings are removed.

The report stated: “It is not possible to mitigate entirely the risk that an accident or accidents may take place shortly after implementation.”

Assessments will now be carried in batches at the borough’s pelican crossings in the coming months before recommendations are made on whether they should be kept.

TfL, which installs and maintains the traffic lights at crossings, would need to agree to the proposals.

If crossings are identified for removal, the authority plans to hold public consultations to allow residents to comment on each one.

Mrs Hines has written an open letter to Barnet Council, which will be published on this week's letters page, calling on the authority to scrap the plans.

The letter has been signed by 25 people including headteachers and heads of community groups and charities.

To sign a petition opposing the review, log on to http://petitions.barnet.gov.uk/roadcrossings/.