HEREFORDSHIRE Council press officer Alison Grange is right to confirm that it is not only disabled people who find the Eign Gate, Whitecross subway unsuitable to use, (Hereford Times, March 8) and I always make this point in my representations to the agencies concerned.
We have no surface-level crossing into the city centre between the Belmont side of Greyfriars Bridge and Widemarsh Street, only subways, the busiest being Eign Gate to Whitecross, also the steepest and most difficult to access.
It is unfortunate that it runs under Victoria Street, putting decisions about it in the hands of the Highways Agency, described to me by one Herefordshire councillor as difficult, obstinate and seemingly uninterested in the problems.' Plans for a pedestrian crossing were drawn up in 2003. The cost would be modest compared with other recent road projects and the infrastructure already exists; traffic has to stop now at the corner of Eign Street. But year after year it gets shelved by the Highways Agency, St Christopher House, Southwark Street, London SE1 0TE and their agents AmeyMouchel, Stafford Park 10, Telford TF3 3BU.
I urge anyone who wants the crossing to be installed to make their feelings known to them, to Herefordshire Council.
Beloved of town planners in the 1950s and 60s, these subways are being closed in other cities by more enlightened bodies. People are told to use their cars less, but who can blame the residents of the Whitecross area for driving and parking in the city centre when the alternative is to struggle with the steep incline, dodging the urine, litter and skateboarders, not to mention the dangers at night?
I fully support Herefordshire Lifestyles ban on their employees taking wheelchair users through the subway, both for their own welfare and that of the wheelchair user should the chair run out of control on the steep access slope.
T MINTON, Hereford.
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