Cash-strapped Transport for London (TfL) has been asked to consider building an emergency footbridge over the most dangerous junction in the borough.

For more than a decade residents of Malden Rushett have complained about congestion and accidents at the crossing which is near Chessington World of Adventures.

At a council meeting on Wednesday evening, residents were told cuts had delayed a full revamp of the crossing which brings lorries and cars through the centre of their village.

David McKenna, Tfl transport manager, said he was considering an interim £70k scheme with a right hand turn filter because of the problems finding the £1.67m for the full scheme.

But the interim scheme does not include a pedestrian crossing leaving the problem of crossing the fast-moving road for children and elderly people.

Mr McKenna said: “It does not solve all the problems. It is to deliver a very quick win.

“I don’t want you to feel we have just given up on the full scheme because that is not the case.”

But Beryl Gibson, chairman of the Malden Rushett Residents Association, said: “We have been waiting years and years and we always appear to be bottom of the list.

“Every day there are near misses. It is a catastrophe there.”

Resident Gavin Walker said: “What will it take before TfL spend some money on that junction before someone is killed?”

Steve Heil, said: “We are virtually prisoners in our houses.”

Brian Murphy said: “There is no doubt in my mind it will happen. I don’t think it will be in my lifetime.”

Julie Bott asked about a footbridge. She said: “That wouldn’t affect the flow of traffic and deal with my 12-year-old who has to go to school in Chessington.”

Tony Arbour, Kingston’s London Assembly member, said: “It is like déjà vu all over again. I have been very disappointed this evening. I have always taken the view that Kingston does not get its fair share of TfL money.

“We have got no underground and we don’t get our fair share.” He said he was “extremely attracted to the idea of a footbridge” over the road.

Councillor Rachel Reid, chairman of the south of the borough neighbourhood committee, said: “At least we know it is still on the programme and that is very encouraging to us.”

The crossing on the A243 has witnessed 15 collisions in the past three years, with 80 percent involving a vehicle doing a right hand turn, according to police figures.

Dozens more where there were no injuries may not have been recorded.

The meeting also saw plans for traffic lights crossing the Hook Road outside the Hook Centre near where former Chessington Community College, Mike Cowley, 73, was killed by a lorry in December 2007.

The crossing is expected to cost £100,000 and be finished by January 2014.