Councillor steps up campaign over 'awful' roads after vacuum cleaner fall left her in a wheelchair
A Shropshire councillor who spent months in a wheelchair after suffering a complicated complex double fracture of her leg is stepping up her campaign for better access for the disabled.
Councillor Vivienne Parry, who represents Ludlow South, fell at her home in January this year while carrying a vacuum cleaner up the stairs.
Now she has gone on the campaign trail after her experiences trying to get around Ludlow in a wheelchair.
Councillor Parry said: "In January I broke my leg in two places. It was a complicated fracture and it has taken many months for it to heal.
"I have campaigned in Ludlow for better access for the disabled and those with mobility problems for many years. However, it was the hard reality of trying to get around Ludlow in a wheelchair that brought home just how challenging matters are in our town,"
Councillor Parry, of Temeside, in Ludlow, has written to Shropshire Council leader Lezley Picton and senior officers to get something done about the state of the footpaths and roads.
She said: "The footpaths and roads in the town centre are just awful - there is no other word for them. Footpaths are uneven, pavements cracked and paving stones uneven.
"I found after the experience of being in town for the jubilee something of a nightmare, and working on our town’s flower displays was difficult in the extreme."
She added: "Surely, we should have a policy as a council for the disabled in our towns? A basic standard of maintenance which doesn’t turn a trip into town into an exhausting challenge.
"It's not just the disabled it impacts on either. In my work as a councillor, I regularly come across residents and visitors that have been injured by our town's multiple trip hazards.
"Surely Ludlow and indeed Shropshire deserves better than this. As council taxpayers we deserve, decent, safe pavements in our town centres."
Councillor Parry's vacuum cleaner accident resulted in a complex fracture of her leg which took months to heal. She is now walking again.
In response Councillor Picton confirmed that they have received the letter.
"We’ll now carefully consider the issues that she raises and then reply to her to address her concerns,” she said.
