WHY did the horse cross the road? Because Essex County Council installed a crossing for it.

Residents are bemused by a Pegasus crossing on a new section of Colchester’s Northern Approach Road, the Via Urbis Romanae.

It is designed for riders on horseback with buttons at normal level and one at about 10ft.

Only two other such crossings exist in Essex, in Great Notley and Rayleigh. They are more commonly near the likes of Epsom Downs Racecourse, in Surrey, and close to the Horse Guards Parade, in London.

Essex County Council said the crossing was needed because the new road severed a bridleway known as Tower Lane.

It has been unable to provide a cost, but similar schemes elsewhere in the country cost in excess of £100,000.

Martin Goss, the Lib Dem councillor for Colchester’s Mile End ward, said Essex County Council was pressured into the crossing by the Bridleways Association and said it was part of the “Northern Gateway vision”.

He said: “I have to say I haven’t seen any horse riders use the route.

“There might be more country routes in existence which they already use.”

Former jockey Gerard Oxford, a Highwoods Indepedent borough councillor, said Newmarket has had similar crossings for years, going back to his time there in the Sixties.

He said: “During the Northern Gateway planning process, with sports being a focus, it became very clear there are at least 70 stables or liveries nearby, so they could quite easily need to cross the road.

“There was talk about a similar one in Mill Road to provide a safe corridor to Highwoods Country Park.

“You may well find this is funded by developer’s money, in which case the developers are having to pay for it.

“People who own horses are also taxpayers, so why shouldn’t their taxes be used to pay for facilities.”

Horse rider Michelle De Feo who lives in Boxted was not convinced she’d feel safe enough to use it due to speeding drivers.