We’ve received the thoughful email from a resident about Castle Road in Rayleigh. With her agreement , we’ve forwarded it on to County Highways , (with a copy to her Conservative ward councillor, Simon Smith)
We’ll let you know what the response is.
I am writing to you to bring your attention to the state of the paths and the road itself in Castle Road.
I have lived in Moat Rise for 12 years, and I can never remember the paths or the road being in a fit state in that time. I am fit and agile so there is not a problem for me as far as walking safely, but Castle Road is a very busy road well used by pedestrians making their way into the town, and also children on their way to school.
My main concern is that as soon as it rains, one has to spend the entire length of the walk along Castle Road either dodging puddles on the pavement or jumping onto residents’ properties to avoid being soaked by vehicles using the road. I hope you understand that this is very frustrating, especially as car drivers do not seem to realise that the road is very narrow, as are the pavements, and most choose to ignore the 30 mph speed limit.
My frustration has increased since, on walking to the station, as I do every morning along Love Lane, I have noticed that the pavements on one side of Love Lane have not only been resurfaced, but that there appeared to be much less wrong with them than the pavements in Castle Road in the first place. Also, the resurfaced pavement is on the opposite side of the road to the school, so I can’t think of a reason this needed to be done for safety.
Imagine my delight on seeing that there was a team doing some sort of work to the pavement along part of Castle Road, only to find it now looks like a rather uneven patchwork quilt with a big uneven snake running down the middle of the path!
I have elderly parents and neighbours which walk along Castle Road to get into the town, and I know that they are finding it increasingly difficult to use the pavements. As an area that has a large population of elderly residents, I would have thought something could be done about this.
Finally, there also seems to be an abundance of vehicle drivers who think it is okay to park their vehicle on the pavements – not only does this add to the problem of making the pavements uneven due to the weight of the vehicles, some cars are parked so far onto the pavement that you have to either walk in the road to get around it, or have to cross the road.
This Saturday I saw an elderly woman walking along Daws Heath Road with a zimmer frame and she could just about squeeze between the large van parked on the pavement and the fence of the recycling site.
I hope that I have not come across as an unreasonable person and I am not in the habit of complaining, but my frustration is such that I feel compelled to at least try to bring it to the attention of somebody that is in a position to remedy these issues.