£50,000 allocated to repair Stamford's cobbles and dangerous paving
Lincolnshire is to spend £50,000 on a ‘specialist gang’ of contractors to repair pavements in Stamford town centre.
The announcement follows numerous reports of people tripping on uneven paving after the Mercury featured 87-year-old Dorothy Alexander on its front page.
She fell outside Marks and Spencer last month, suffering a head injury and severe bruising.
Dorothy, with a black eye and bruised chin, attended last month’s town council meeting to highlight the problem and ask what would be done to prevent it happening to more people.
The programme of work will start in early November and will be carried out over 40 days.
At a meeting of Stamford Town Council on Tuesday, David Brailsford, (Con-Stamford West) county councillor, said the first offer he was given by Lincolnshire County Council was for work valued at £30,000, but he had not accepted this as good enough.
“I got it up to £50,000 but I wanted £100,000,” he told town councillors. However, he admitted that £50,000 ‘is not going to solve it all’.
Coun Brailsford and Lincolnshire County Council’s executive member for highways Coun Richard Davies have walked around Stamford town centre to inspect the problem. They focused on the areas highlighted in a report by Stamford Urban Group, part of the town’s civic society.
Coun Brailsford said the areas of ‘significant concern’ were at both ends of the High Street and at the top of Ironmonger Street, where the stone setts ‘show great signs of wear’.
The work will concentrate on areas of high footfall, but won’t include Red Lion Square.
“It’s a specialist gang coming to town,” he said.
“These repairs won’t be done by our highways team. These slabs need doing properly, which is why we have the specialist team.”
Members of the town council welcomed the initiative, but Coun Bob Sandall asked for a breakdown of the spending, saying he did not trust the county council.
Do you think £50,000 is enough to repair the town centre's wobbly and uneven paving? Call Darren Greenwood on 01780 759950 or e-mail darren.greenwood@iliffepublishing.co.uk
