Pavement campaigner claims cost is being put before safety

A local woman is refusing to take a step back in her campaign to force the Council to do more about damaged pavements in the borough.

Isleworth resident Sarah Felstead has been lobbying over the issue since hearing about a series of accidents in which elderly people (particularly women) have been injured and one died following an operation resulting from her fall. A fall by her mother-in-law has galvanised her into further action and she has kept a record of a series of mishaps and damage to local footways.

She claims that, despite contacting a range of Councillors and officers within Hounslow Council, she has seen no concerted effort to deal with the issue and she believes that a decision has been made to accept a certain level of insurance claims for injuries because this would be cheaper than repairing pavements.

She was hopeful of an improvement in the situation with the election of a new administration at the Council particularly as the local Conservative party had made it a campaign issue by using some of her photos in campaign literature. However, the very pavements that were featured remain untouched under the new Council and further deterioration has taken place. The leaflet claimed that Hounslow was the third highest payer in London for insurance claims related to falls on damaged pavements shelling out £3 million over the last five years.

One major problem according to Ms. Felstead is that the significant amount of building work around the borough is leading to an increased level of damage. Skip lorries and other vehicles delivering building materials often mount the pavements causing severe damage.

Local MP Ann Keen has been to visit the local area to see for herself the kind of damage that is occurring. Ms Felstead said, " I really enjoyed meeting Ann - she was easy to talk to and aghast at the state of the pavements - she said that her Mother had suffered from eyesight difficulties in later life and would not have been able to have safely walked around the area. She could see that the area is being developed as there were 3 skips in driveways - and as we turned a corner one building site had completely closed off the pavement so we had to walk into the road to go past."

Pictures of the people who have suffered from falls have been taken and forwarded to the Council. As Ms. Felstead points out even if the victims do recover from their injuries they often remain shaken by the experience for much longer afterwards.

The pictures she has taken show how the support legs for cranes to transfer building site material have caused significant damage to pavements. Despite the fact that these pictures clearly show the firm and vehicle responsible for the damage apparently no action has been taken against those responsible.

March 23, 2007