Question
I am asking this for an older resident who for health and age reasons, does not feel able to come to the committee in person, so has asked me to ask this question on his behalf.
Unfortunately in November he was left battered and bruised by a fall in the bottom part of Denmark Street near Stitchery Do in Wokingham Town Centre after tripping on the pavement. He contacted the Council to ask when the pavement in that part of Denmark Street would be brought up to the same standard as the Market Place, and was told that the area of pavement in question would be inspected for faults. He asked to be told what the inspection found.
That was on 3rd December. He asked again on 10th January. As of the date of writing this question, 21st January, he still has not had a response. He hopes that an answer will be forthcoming tonight. So please, when the area of pavement outside Stitchery Do was inspected after his fall, what did the inspection show?
Minutes:
Question
I am asking this for an older resident who for health and age reasons, does not feel able to come to the committee in person, so has asked me to ask this question on his behalf.
Unfortunately in November he was left battered and bruised by a fall in the bottom part of Denmark Street near Stitchery Do in Wokingham Town Centre after tripping on the pavement. He contacted the Council to ask when the pavement in that part of Denmark Street would be brought up to the same standard as the Market Place, and was told that the area of pavement in question would be inspected for faults. He asked to be told what the inspection found.
That was on 3rd December. He asked again on 10th January. As of the date of writing this question, 21st January, he still has not had a response. He hopes that an answer will be forthcoming tonight. So please, when the area of pavement outside Stitchery Do was inspected after his fall, what did the inspection show?
Answer
If I can take the Winnersh lights one first we have been talking to Paul Fishwick and of course we will talk to local Members before we even consider doing anything that is obvious.
I am very sorry to hear about the gentleman’s fall and hope he has made a full recovery.
It is not acceptable not to get a response I completely agree and I would like to apologise for that as it is not what we hope to do. After receiving the report from the gentleman on 3rd December 2019, we requested a Highways Inspector to check the area around Stitchery Do in Wokingham, in case there were any defects. No defects were found.
Denmark Street footway is actually inspected every month. The latest inspection was carried out on the 2nd January. Again no safety defects were found in the vicinity of Stitchery Do.
We get a very large number of enquires every week and unfortunately I think this one was missed but that is not an excuse.
As part of the wider project for Wokingham Town, Peach Street, Denmark Street and Broad Street will be progressed as Public Realm improvement schemes. We have got budget to cover the design phase, and we have programmed in to start the design work during the coming financial year. Once the design is complete we can start to establish construction costs and a timetable for future delivery.
Supplementary Question
Pauline you have partly answered this in your first answer, but the Market Place has been repaved, although there are issues with the colour, and you have just mentioned that some planning for improving the rest of the pavement is now being done. Can you tell me when you will actually start improving the rest of the pavement in Denmark Street?
Supplementary Answer
I have not got a date yet. It is a balancing act. I think we would like to not cause too much destruction of the town centre to ensure that the businesses are not constantly being upset by road works or improvements so we will do something but at the moment we have not got a date yet as we are very conscious of not damaging the businesses in that area as well.