PUPILS have teamed up with the charity Fixers to create a film calling on Stirling Council to make more improvements to the Customs Roundabout underpasses.

A notorious underpass that was the scene of a rape last year is still unsafe, say pupils from the nearby Wallace High School.

They have launched a video campaign with Fixers, the charity that gives young people a voice, calling on the council to make more improvements to the area.

The pupils say they are scared to walk through the underpasses, which are just over a mile away from their school, on their own.

Morgan Williams, 17, said: "It’s terrifying to walk through there alone. I don’t feel safe, I always feel like there’s somebody behind me or something bad is going to happen.

"There are no street lights by the entrance so it gets pretty dark. I need to walk that way five times a week to get to a sports club at Stirling Indoor Bowling that I attend after school.

"After I heard about the rape I stopped walking through there on my own. I was really shocked about it – you don't expect to hear about things like that happening.

"I already felt nervous because a few years ago an elderly man who was walking home through the underpass was attacked and unfortunately he passed away.

"It was scary – I kept thinking that something like that could have easily happened to me."

Morgan says there are alternative routes but they can be dangerous.

She said: "There is a bridge that I walk over instead, but it’s a car bridge and the pavement is quite thin so there’s not a great deal of space for me to walk and it doesn’t feel very safe.

"We want the underpasses to be a better and safer place to walk through so young people don’t take risks going a different way."

Local parent Paul Williamson appears in the film.

He said: "I personally wouldn’t be comfortable with any of my kids walking down there and I’d even go so far as to say that I’d advise them to go a longer route to avoid it if they could. It’s not a nice area for anyone to go."

Morgan and her team are asking Stirling Council to make improvements to the lighting and signage as well as providing clearly visible CCTV and an artistic mural which would cover up the graffiti inside the underpasses.

She said: "It would be good to get some better lighting and some more CCTV so that if anything does happen the police can see it, and a mural would brighten it up a bit."

The film will be shown to members of Stirling Council following their re-election in May.

Morgan said: "There's still a lot that needs to be done to make the underpass safer, it's a horrible place to walk through.

"I hope they will see where we’re all coming from and how this affects us all, and make some changes so we can use the underpass without being scared."

A Stirling Council spokesperson said: "As a local authority our residents’ safety is a key priority.

"Around £20,000 of lighting improvements were made at both the Craigs and Customs roundabout underpasses late last year, in support of a wider project to replace our LED lighting across the area."

Fixers works with young people aged 16-25 across the UK by providing them with resources to help them campaign on issues they feel strongly about.

To find out more or to donate to the charity go to www.fixers.org.uk