I was going to wait for the Herts Ad to break the news, but
they haven’t printed the article yet eventhough they contacted me before
Christmas to ask some questions. To be honest, I think that the Editor is waiting
for a slow news week (I did learn something at Uni) before releasing the story because
it’s not that interesting. I mean it’s pretty predictable that ‘Wheelchair Boy’
would get his own way. The headline news is that after almost a year of
campaigning, the council accepted that I was right and the ‘speed restrictors’
they had installed on a pedestrian path had to be removed. The ridiculous speed
humps were finally taken out back in December, just over a year after they were
put in.
In case anyone has forgot the background of what I’m going
on about or is new to ‘The Adventures of Wheelchair Boy’, go and read some old
posts. Only joking. I’ll re-cap. Basically, there is a public path (Causeway)
near my house that I use to access the local park (Verulamium). In August 2012,
the path was dug up and speed humps were put in to slow cyclists down. My
brother wrote to the local paper, flagging up the potential issues disabled
people might face. They were obviously ignored by the council until April/May
2013 when my wheelchair tipped completely backwards, proving that the humps
were unsuitable.
However, having wasted millions of pounds on the project, councillors
were reluctant to admit their stupidity and make a U-turn. I wasn’t going away
though and with the help of family, friends, the Herts Ad and the St. Albans
District Access Group, common sense finally prevailed (I think they wanted to
draw a line before the New Year. Installing then removing them within a year
and a half was a huge waste of taxpayer’s money but I’m not to blame. The council
did not think through the plans and rushed into it. Hopefully, they will learn
from this expensive mistake. Potentially the only positive to come from this
calamitous blunder.
Apart from the fact that ‘Wheelchair Boy’ proved himself to
be a boss that takes no rubbish. Don’t mess with me.
Bye for now!
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