Pavements need maintenance

Since the Covid-19 crisis came, we were unable to socialise as we used to, which encouraged us to walk and travel about.

I have taken to walking in the mid evening about 8pm, there are not many people about so that it’s safe.

However, some of the surfaces of the streets of Horsham, or should I say, ‘pavements’, require climbing boots they are so rough, some pavements go like a switchback up and down where the whole pavement has been sloped to allow a car to cross the pavement, preference being given to the vehicles so it is easy to leave the road, but not the pedestrians who is on the up and down.

Speed bumps in the road are about the same height as the kerbs, so why not just a sloping kerb stone.

Other areas have a crossfall towards the road which is much greater than 3 per cent which is supposed to be the maximum recommended by safety regulations.

If the pavement is flat, ‘regulations say maximum of 3mm gap under a straight edge of 1 metre length’. Then the surface varies according to how many times it has been dug up for the services under it to be accessed.

There seems to be no consistency with regard to the height of kerb stones, some you could fall off with vertigo.

Service hatches are either proud or set in with a slope all round to ensure a puddle for the unwary and the tendency for some car owners to put half of the vehicle onto the pavement as if that makes it safer (not for wheelchair users).

One particular road I walked, had five different surfaces, from smooth to the climbing boot type and all the multiples between.

We all hear about councils receiving grants for road maintenance, but there are more people walking than cars, especially the young and very old.

My wife has a 4 wheel rollator with a seat which she can use when tired, and a bag underneath. The noise this walker makes on some of the surfaces is horrendous, as the seat/bag area acts as a sounding box, the concrete brick finish surfaces just outside the shops near Queen Street are the worst, all the way from the railway bridge to New Street.

I have no idea how blind people cope with the changes in surface, slopes, holes or bumps but it must be very difficult for them.