Cambridge councillor says damaged pavements make it unsafe for disabled people to get around
She says she’s had to buy a stronger mobility scooter to cope with cracks and potholes and wants highways officers to experience the same routes themselves.
A councillor in Cambridge says broken roads and pavements are making it dangerous for disabled people to travel safely.
Naomi Bennett, who leads the Green Group on Cambridge City Council, says she’s had to buy a new mobility scooter strong enough to handle uneven paths.
She said: “The wheelchair is much lighter, so it's much more vulnerable to unevenness in the road. I know that other residents locally have given up on mobility scooters and gone back to cars because in a car you're more protected. I don't want to give up my mobility scooter.”
Standing beside a sloped pavement, she added: “It could tip my mobility scooter over and it's very painful because there are lots of potholes. I'd love to welcome some of the other county councillors and some of the highways officers out to ride in a wheelchair or a scooter over some of this so they can see exactly how it feels.”
Cambridgeshire County Council says it’s investing £73 million this year to fix roads, footpaths, and cycleways.
Earlier this year, the council’s Transport Committee chair Alex Beckett said that even with a doubled highways budget of £59 million, it could take nearly £1 billion to fully repair Cambridgeshire’s damaged and sinking roads.