Anger after bollards block routes to shops
A disabled man is having to go nearly two miles out of his way on his mobility scooter because concrete bollards are blocking his short cut to the shops.
Keith Beardmore has always used an off-road shortcut from Darlaston Lane to Vulcan Road to reach mobility scooter repair shop JR Wooddisse that he visits regularly in Dale Street.
On a smaller scooter he could fit round the side of the bollards but now the 68-year-old has had to have a slightly bigger scooter he can’t squeeze through to use the scenic short cut anymore.
He said many others using mobility scooters have a similar problem and wants to get in touch with whoever owns the alley to see if they could be moved slightly.
He said: “I go down a street called Darlaston Lane and there’s a little cut through which I used to take. When I had my little scooter I used to go through there fine and it’s a big shortcut to the mobility store I go to.
“Now I’m forced to go around, down and round to Vulcan Road.
“It’s about a mile-and-a-half long. It’s just not wide enough.
“There’s concrete ‘pyramids’, about two-foot-six high, but they are so close together that I just can’t get my bigger scooter through.” Mr Beardmore says he has been in touch with Wolverhampton council but that they said they don’t own the land and could not tell him he does. “I’m trying to find the owner of the land to push one of them over a bit to let me through.
“Whoever owns the land surely they could get something done.”
Mr Beardmore, from Wednesbury, who has arthritis, said he had to go upgrade to a bigger model of scooter, due to his previous model being pavement-only.
He said he was unable to walk very far due to his condition and disliked driving – despite his long career as a lorry driver.
He added: “I was a lorry driver, driving instructor, taxi driver and minibus driver – anything, really. I loved driving and absolutely loved anything to do with driving, but now I don’t want to be close to the road or on the road at all.
“I would much rather use my scooter. I can’t walk very far.
“I used to love walking about but it’s too much for me now.
“I remember working for Avery in the West Midlands and they did drawbridges that lorries would go on to weigh themselves. I had to pick up one and take it to Old Kent road in London and manoeuvring was very difficult.
“I’ve took stuff up to York and the roads were narrow there. I had to wait for a van to pick up the stuff I was carrying because it was that narrow. That was a long time ago now.”
