LABOUR MP Angela Smith is backing action to improve safety at Stanford-le-Hope’s level crossing.

Network Rail says Stanford-le-Hope is a hotspot in the region because of people misusing the level crossing.

There were nine reported incidents in 2008, including three near misses where a train narrowly avoided a collision with a vehicle.

Trespass and vandalism on the railway is also a particular problem in the area, with 15 incidents of railway crime reported last year in Stanford-le-Hope alone.

This placed the town in fourth place on the region’s railway crime list of shame, behind neighbouring Pitsea and Colchester and Ipswich.

Mrs Smith, MP for Basildon and East Thurrock, backed Network Rail’s No Messin’! campaign, which helps combat railway crime and gives children positive alternatives to messing around on railway tracks.

She also praised Network Rail’s work with local schools to educate children about the dangers of playing on the railway, following recent visits to Stanford-le-Hope’s Hassenbrook and St Clere’s schools.

Mrs Smith said: “I am very pleased to have been able to meet Network Rail to discuss community safety issues such as level crossing misuse, and to witness the problem first-hand.

“Even in the short time we were at Stanford-le-Hope, we saw a car speed through the closing barriers, just to save a couple of minutes on their journey.

“Drivers who do this are not only putting their own lives in danger, but those of their passengers and rail users, too.”

Network Rail runs regular events as part of the campaign, the next of which will be held at Festival Park, Basildon, on Wednesday, August 5.

For more information on the campaign, visit www.no-messin.com