Road to nowhere

IN SPITE of the very inclement weather, five severely disabled residents of St Bridget’s Cheshire Home, Rustington, together with Leonard Cheshire Disability local campaigns co-ordinator Julie Stainton and other supporters bravely attended the meeting of the Joint Eastern Arun Area Committee on December 7.
By The Newsroom
Published 23rd Dec 2010, 08:34 BST

The residents, Andrew Gillam, Katy Montgomery, Jackie Postance, Ernie Roberts and Tim Williamson and their supporters were there to plead with the committee’s members to reverse their earlier decision not to proceed with a proposed pedestrian safety scheme in Sea Lane, Rustington.

The residents were concerned there had been a serious misunderstanding of their views by the county council, after it was stated in an officer’s report to an earlier meeting of the committee that “a meeting between county councillor Graham Tyler and representatives of the home revealed that their preferred route to the village was via Broadmark Lane”.

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In response to this, residents, helpers and staff at St Bridget’s held a meeting on November 4 unanimously agreed that the residents felt obliged to use only Broadmark Lane, as it was not safe for them to use Sea Lane.

Their wish was to be able to use both routes in order to have safe access to both the western and eastern parts of the village’s commercial and cultural centre.

I am sorry to report that, in spite of the strong support that they received from Arun councillors Ray Steward and Nicholas Wiltshire at the December 7 meeting, these plucky wheelchair warriors received sympathy, but no change of heart

Instead, the committee decided to proceed with the suggestion of county councillor Graham Tyler that, instead of providing safety conditions on Sea Lane, as requested by St Bridget’s, the council should instead provide an “alternative route” along the Broadmark Way private road, and Broadmark Lane.

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In the new year this will be “walked” by members and officers of the county and parish councils to check for any defects.

This is, of course, no “provision” at all, as these roads already exist.

The proposal amounts to no more than normal highway maintenance and has no relevance whatsoever to the desperate need for pedestrian safety provision at Sea Lane, not only for the disabled residents of St Bridget’s, but also for the general public. Both, through the indifference of the county council, are obliged to use Sea Lane at their peril, and are denied any say in the matter.

Kenneth W. Grimes

Broadmark Lane

Rustington

Related topics:Rustington