Christine Tongue: Let’s campaign to ’round’ every kerb

I’m stuck behind a huge car across the pavement. Owner turns up. Me “You’re blocking the dropped kerb!” Owner: “I was only five minutes!” That’s my five minutes you stole from my shortening life, you thoughtless b*****d is in my head but I say: “Please don’t do it again!” With what I hope is a winning smile…..

For me and many other wheel users it’s an almost daily experience of finding a car parked across the only dropped kerb – in the worst case next to a lamppost or heavy A-board. This means I have to go backwards for yards on a narrow pavement, next to a busy road or I have to wait.

Dropped kerbs are the low bits where wheel users can cross the road without bumping down a right angle of concrete. They often have yellow bobbles where blind people can feel where the edge of the pavement is. We don’t have enough! You might find one but can’t be sure there’ll be one on the opposite pavement.

And some pavements don’t have them at all!

It’s a nightmare.

So, I’ve got a new campaign. Well, a version of an old one. And I’m hoping many of you can join me!

This would improve the lives of all pavement, wheel users in Thanet.

I want you to list the missing or unusable dropped kerbs in our towns so we can compile a document for KCC Highways to work their way through. Send your findings to me, [email protected] and I’ll co-ordinate.

Several of our politicians recently have met up with members of Access Thanet to hear us moan about accessibility and promise help.

Polly Billington, MP for East Thanet, brought two of her staff to listen to me and fellow founder member of Access Thanet, Jackie, who uses a heavy powered wheelchair, as we lumbered around Broadstairs seafront and the beach walkway, via our lovely lift.

Polly tried out being me in the scooter – a bit too enthusiastically I thought, as she soon found how to make it go faster than a tired walk and hared away at 4 miles an hour towards the bandstand…..

But it’s great that politicians are prepared to put themselves in our place  – former transport minister Hugh Merriman (not a hobbit I promise you} wouldn’t even sit in my wheelchair when I met him at the launch of Thanet Parkway station. He said he’d had advice from experts and didn’t believe in non-disabled people using mobility devices.

To me, if you have the chance to put yourself in the seat of a disabled person, you’ve opened your eyes a tiny bit more to my world and my point of view. {crotch height actually, so please wear a nice belt.)

Councillor Joanne Bright has tried it and realised how bumpy life is on our potholes and broken kerbs. And last week councillor Tricia Austin tried it out and shook herself about on our nice-  apparently flat – Broadstairs seafront.

Tricia has taken up my concerns over dropped kerbs to KCC Highways department.

I’m afraid I’m always seeing officials saying “send us details of the problem and we’ll see if we can fix it”. But let’s play along with it this time.

The relevant KCC official in Highways told Tricia:  “I would recommend that Access Thanet email [email protected] stating who they are along with their findings and difficulties at specific locations (rather than generally).

“The Highway Improvements Team will then assess the locations and see if they meet the criteria for their intervention. If this is something that the team are unable to assist with and fund at this time, it would be an item which will need to be placed on a Highway Improvement Plan (HIP).

“Individual residents can request dropped kerbs in the same manner but unless there is an evident issue which is causing a safety concern, they would normally be directed to their Parish or Town Council and the HIP process.”

So let’s do our list. It might be VERY long.

In the meantime, wouldn’t it solve all our problems if every kerb was gently rounded, like to ones outside the Albion Hotel in Broadstairs. Not perfect, still a bump, but manageable, and you do get the odd car parking on the pavement as it’s easy. But much easier for wheel users.

Dropped kerbs may look like nothing and mean nothing to most people, but until I get my personal antigravity device or find a way of carrying a portable ramp, they’re the difference between access and staying at home.

There are 16 million disabled people in the UK. You never know when wheels are going to be your way into semi-normal life.

Let’s get KCC working on it! If everyone who needs wheels , or might need them in the future, listed the issues in their own neighbourhood and made a fuss with their local representatives, we might find politicians taking it up as a campaign promise in the next election!

Email [email protected] with your kerb issues or go to the Access Thanet Facebook page.