Shoreham scooter user tired of bumpy ride calls for pavement fix

Alan Gordon, of Hawkins Crescent, Shoreham, has counted 13 broad cracks in a stretch of pavement in Kingston Broadway, by the Holmbush Roundabout in Shoreham.

The cracks, which he said are about an inch wide and deep at intervals of little over a metre, cover the pavement from the curb to the grass.

The 84-year-old, who uses his mobility scooter daily along the route, said: “It really is pretty awful.

“Any road I try to use into the town centre, everyone of those is rough and tumble.

“It must be just as bad for pushchairs with toddlers – it must knock the sense out of the poor children.”

The grandfather-of-two believes the bumpy and ‘uncomfortable’ journey is damaging his mobility scooter.

“I shudder to think what the people who have to service my scooter think of it,” he said.

“I can see it not lasting as long as it should.”

Mr Gordon, a former quality assurance manager, said he had brought the issue up with the county council several years before and was advised that the model of scooter played its part in ensuring a smooth ride.

But Mr Gordon said an all terrain class three mobility scooter would cost around £3,000 more than the class two scooter he currently owns.

He believes it is the county council’s responsibility to invest in resurfacing the pavement.

“I want them to deal with it,” he said.

But a county council spokesman said: “West Sussex Highways inspects every footway and carriageway at least once a year.

“If a defect is spotted and deemed unsafe it will be repaired.

“We reviewed the Kingston Broadway area recently and would agree that not all the pavements there are entirely smooth.

“However, no safety issues were spotted and we would like to reassure the public that if council officers find faults which have safety issues, these are repaired within reasonable timescales.”

The spokesman advised people who consider any part of the highway to be unsafe to report it through their website http://love.westsussex.gov.uk