The public can help a major drive to make crossing the road easier in Hartlepool.

Officials from Hartlepool Borough Council want people to continue suggesting where special dropped kerbs - which are designed to help the disabled and parents with prams and pushchairs - should be installed.

Paul Mitchinson, highways maintenance team leader, said: "We spent £41,000 installing around 150 of these kerbs on main roads across the town last year and people made a lot of useful suggestions.

"However, we will be spending similar amounts in the current financial year and in 2003/4, so we still need people to tell us where the kerbs will be of most benefit.

"It would be best if they would confine their suggestions to the immediate area in which they live so we can build up as comprehensive a picture as possible of the work that needs carrying out.

"We need to install these dropped kerbs in a co-ordinated way to create fully accessible routes. There is little benefit in creating islands where kerbs have been installed only to leave them surrounded by roads where they have not."

Council officials are concentrating on installing them on main strategic routes including roads leading to community centres and other public buildings, before turning their attention to residential areas.

Members of the public can suggest locations for dropped kerbs by writing to Mr Mitchinson at Hartlepool Borough Council, Highways Division, Bryan Hanson Hose, Hanson Square, Hartlepool.