Campaigners for the blind have taken their fight against shared space schemes, such as the controversial Hackbridge junction, to the very top after handing a petition in to Prime Minister David Cameron.

Sarah Gayton, a filmmaker, is among a group of people opposed to the growing proliferation of 'shared crossings' who feel they put the lives of blind, young or vulnerable people at risk.

The Hackbridge development is the £1.4million Sutton example of this type of crossing and is supposed to work on an informal basis where motorists voluntarily give way to pedestrians. Because visually impaired people are often unable to recognise when a driver is letting them cross they are forced to wait, or worse, campaigners say, have been put off going to these areas altogether.

The petitioners were at Downing Street on Wednesday December 3 to ask the Prime Minister for a public inquiry into the road designs and its impact on the blind or partially sighted.

The date was chosen as that is the United Nations International Day for the Persons with Disabilities.

Miss Gayton, 44, said: "I was inspired to start campaigning after being inspired by the Paralympics."

She said the schemes' "fundamental" principles were to create shared spaces for everybody to use, but in doing so "fundamentally took away from the need of blind people".

She said: "To put it simply blind people cannot access these areas independently and they are being designed out of our streets and it is causing huge problems across England."

Miss Gayton added that the problems in Hackbridge were happening across the country and is causing "sheer misery to many vulnerable pedestrian groups, causing no go zones for blind and partially sighted people."

As part of the campaign a video, called Sea of Change Walking Into Trouble, which was awarded the National Federation of the Blind of the UK Girmshaw award 2014, has been made highlighting the problems faced by people at these crossings.

To view the film visit SeaOfChange.