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Cash bid to tackle risky High Street
12:09pm Friday 19th October 2001
SLIPPERY and uneven paving stones are a danger to shoppers in Chesham High Street, it was claimed this week.
The town council is looking for cash to build a narrow safe path through the town.
Ironically, the move comes just two weeks after it was announced that the pedestrianised area might be ripped up anyway. Residents will be asked in a public survey over the coming months to vote on whether they want to get rid of it.
On Wednesday, town councillor Alan Walters (Lib Dem, Townsend) told a meeting of the Chiltern Local Committee, a group made up of parish, town, district and county councillors that allots money for environmental improvements particularly on highways issues, that the High Street's current surface did become "rather slippery" in poor weather conditions.
He said: "There have been lots of people falling over, ambulances called etc. We need something permanent."
Mike Kennedy, Chesham town clerk, said there were a number of fractures and broken bones last year. He said he personally witnessed half-a-dozen ambulance call-outs resulting from falls.
Cllr Pauline Wilkinson (Con, Newtown), told the Free Press that she knew two people who had fallen over on the High Street in the wet including an elderly woman who suffered a broken hip.
She added: "This is quite an issue. They [the paving stones] are getting very slippery and lethal in icy weather. I have slipped on them before now. I've seen other people slip on them. Something has got to be done."
The town council wants money to build a narrow pathway to give pedestrians a safe place to walk. Councillors hope good bricks removed to make way for the path can be used to replace damaged stones elsewhere on the High Street.
Pensioner Patricia Richardson, 65, of Appletree Walk, Chesham, said she felt the pedestrianisation was unsafe and that she had to be careful walking on it, especially during winter time.
She said: "Some of this pedestrianisation is very bad and anyone could trip over and they are quite slippy. Also the bricks are not very flat."
Jim Stevens, Buckinghamshire County Council's Area Manager for Chiltern and South Bucks, explained the paving stones on Chesham High Street had been treated and tested for an acceptable skid-resistance five years ago.
He added: "Since that time I was not aware of people slipping over on the blocks."
He added that the skid resistance may have to be investigated again.
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