Uneven pavements causing injury and isolation in Tavistock
Christine Reid suffered cuts and bruising to her face when she tripped on a pavement.Mrs Reid said she has difficulty getting over the gullies with her walker because the wheels get caught. At a recent meeting at the church to discuss the pavement issue, Mrs Reid said: "These blooming pavements shake you up."She said she was lucky there was someone around to pick her up when she fell.
Bob Stride, 66, said getting around Tavistock was "very hard work" and "bloody painful".He uses a wheelchair and said he has been "tipped" out of it twice because of the paving.However, he added: "I wouldn't like to see all the heritage paving go, that would be awful."But perhaps we could do some grouting and fill in the gaps a little bit just so that my wheels can run over them a bit more smoothly."He said this would be a "dramatic help".
Suzy Weston said a few people had been injured in falls."There's my dad, Brian Mico, there's our friend David, who was black and blue after he fell, there's Bob who's fallen out of his wheelchair - there's just so many people and it's not acceptable," she said.Mrs Weston said her father's mobility scooter fell on top of him in one incident.She said that as a result her father had ventured out less, becoming more isolated.They called for the authorities to "do something about it.".A spokesperson for the council said: "We are sorry to hear that some users may have experienced trips and falls in this area of footway."We inspected the pavement and repaired the defect."
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