For some time the Society has been pressing the County Council to repair the pavements in Stratford. About 18 months ago, the Vice Chairman took John Deegan on a brief walkabout of Church Street to point out some of the defects requiring attention. Then, in early November, he wrote to the County stating that, “ things have deteriorated significantly since I walked you up and down the pavements in Church Street. At that time the concern was for the patches of black top that had been placed in areas where the York stone paving had broken. Now the problem is loose paving stones and stones that are sometimes standing 1cm proud of the adjacent slabs. The work now seems to be beyond what can be dealt with under routine maintenance. Several of the slabs will need to be raised, the bed will need to be re-made and the slabs then re-laid.”

The County immediately responded to our concerns and their maintenance crews carried out some emergency repairs. However, we again wrote at the end of November to point out that, “several of the slabs are now standing proud of their neighbours. There is one outside the gates of KES where one corner of the slab is now standing 1 cm proud of the adjoining slab. This is an accident waiting to happen. The slabs are also loose and rocking. I walked along there this morning in the rain and -- whoosh -- the loose slab pumped a large jet of water up my leg. While I was inspecting these slabs, a lady stopped to speak to me and said that she had recently had the same experience. She ended up with a shoe full of water.”

The County takes our comments seriously and within 24 hours, we received the following assurance:

“I have directed a detailed survey of the Stratford Town Centre footways to develop the basis for identifying short, medium and long term improvements to footways. The initial survey work is already being used to target defects and make good larger areas of pavements over the coming weeks. Some £30,000 of work is already scheduled. The localised concern raised [by you] will be investigated by our Area Surveyor and appropriate actions will be taken to make a good and permanent repair.

Warwickshire County Council have now issued a press release (5 December) stating that a new team was created four weeks ago to focus on the safety of pedestrians and to improve the look of the footways in Stratford. Some of the team’s recent improvements include the work done in Scholars Lane where they have laid new slabs and placed bollards (see pictures above). The County hopes to deliver noticeable footway improvements over the coming months. They plan to have a small works team in for the next 3 months tackling potential tripping-up hazards. In the medium term, they will be identifying streets that require more extensive reconstruction work and will coordinate this with the World Class Stratford project. The County have also expressed regret that Violet Congrave and Dorothy Hakin recently tripped and sustained injuries. Members of the Society can help report defects by calling County Highways on 01926 412515 or visiting www.warwickshire.gov.uk and clicking on roads and travel.”