London, Oct.27 : Painting a zebra crossing across a street or thoroughfare should in the normal course not cost much, but in Britain, a mind boggling 114,000 pounds is spent on each of these pedestrian crossings.

Of the 114,000 pounds, 11,000 pounds is for 'design work'. A further 16,000 pounds is spent on beacons, electrical wiring and road signs, while the balance 87,000 pounds is earmarked for labour costs.

The Daily Mail quoted Tory MP Oliver Letwin as saying that he discovered this exorbitant wastage of public money when he wanted to build a crossing outside a school in his West Dorset constituency.

When officials refused to meet his demand, he requested the figures with a view to raising the money locally.

He was so incensed by the answer he received that yesterday he devoted his weekly column in his local newspaper to the subject.

He wrote: "If the pay rate of the labourers is, say, 20 pounds per hour, then the crossing must take 4,350 man-hours to make. That is more than 100 man-weeks, or 50 people working for two weeks. It is mind-boggling."

Letwin has spent the past 18 months campaigning for the crossing on the A35 in Winterbourne Abbas, near Dorchester.

The pressure group Taxpayers Alliance said the price tag for a zebra crossing was one of the "worst ever examples of waste of public money".

A spokesman for the Highways Agency said that although the cost of the crossing "may appear high", the agency was committed to making sure it was "constructed to the correct standard".

The spokesman said the 103,000 pounds to construct the crossing includes traffic management whilst the crossing is under construction, drainage, excavation of existing pavement, disposal of material, new kerbing and paving, anti-skid surfacing, road markings and studs, new traffic signs, electrical connection and supply pillars and new signal heads and poles.  (ANI)