Ordeal as disabled Southwater woman’s wheelchair is wedged in mud

It took five people to finally lift Debbie Heun, 56, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, from the mud near her home in Southwater.

Now Debbie and her sister Linda Summerell are calling for urgent action.

Debbie, who has severely restricted movement and is able to move only one arm, relies on getting her wheelchair onto a bus whenever she leaves her home to go into Horsham - but has to take a detour because there is no dropped kerb at the bus stop in Worthing Road.

She has frequently found her path blocked by parked cars in the past and was trying to get by one on Sunday when her wheelchair became stuck.

Her sister Linda said: “She is so upset she is now saying she doesn’t want to go out and is feeling unwell and distressed.”

Linda and Debbie say they have asked West Sussex County Council several times to install a dropped kerb at the bus stop, but nothing has been done.

Debbie said that she had sometimes missed her bus on her way to medical appointments because of obstructions on the pathway.

And, she added, she often faced yet another hurdle when she finally got to the bus stop.

“You have to hope that if you ever get to the bus stop there is no other disabled person on the bus because they only allow one wheelchair.”

A West Sussex County Council spokesman said: “We recently added the resident’s request for a dropped-kerb to the list which will be considered for future programmes.

“The county council does have a dropped-kerb programme to assist people with mobility difficulties. With finite resources, requests have to be prioritised. “The current programmes for 2020/21 and 2021/22 are full but we have advised the resident what evidence she will need - such as evidence of community support - to improve her request’s priority rating.”

He added that if parking obstructions were causing a danger, it could be reported to Sussex Police.