Worthing uneven pavement still a cause for concern: 'This is the main shopping street and it needs to be safe to walk down'

TV entrepreneur Thomas Skinner called for an uneven footpath outside Marks and Spencer in Montague Street to be repaired after helping multiple elderly people who had fallen over in December.

A month later, the problem is still apparent.

Worthing town centre manager Sharon Clarke said: "It's been an ongoing issue – we've lobbied to have Montague Street repaved for a long time.

"They started the work in the central area by Montague Place but things have changed and focus is more on Portland Road.

"Montague Street is the main shopping street and it needs to be safe to walk down. Currently, it's not."

West Sussex County Council is responsible for repairing the pavement. A spokesperson said: “A highways officer has been back to the shopping precinct and we are confident that the previous issues were repaired. It is possible that heavy vehicles servicing businesses could have impacted on historic trenchwork under pavement level, causing faults to reappear.

“Montague Street is inspected monthly, on foot, by an officer. This took place earlier this week and a number of issues were highlighted – including those outside Marks and Spencer – and have now been scheduled for repair.”

The council said it will ‘continue to monitor’ the area during routine inspections, ‘as well as responding to ad hoc reports from the public’.

Sharon, who is the director of the Worthing Town Centre Initiative (TCI), said the county council states that complaints must be ‘within certain guidelines’.

She added: “It just doesn't look good. We do regular walk arounds with councils and it's raised everytime.

"They send people to do a bit of the work, who see a slab had come loose right next to another one but – because it's not on the sheet – the guys go away and you have to re-report that slab.

"That's not a good use of tax payers' money. There's a patched approach but it needs time spent on getting it right."

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