Call for action on footpath

A SECURITY guard is calling for action to be taken to provide a pavement along a section of road used regularly by pedestrians before somebody is seriously injured or killed.

A SECURITY guard is calling for action to be taken to provide a pavement along a section of road used regularly by pedestrians before somebody is seriously injured or killed.

Thomas Emmins, who works at Great Yarmouth Magistrates Court, made the appeal after he suffered injuries while trying to avoid a car as he walked along Malthouse Lane in Yarmouth from his home in Pavilion Road, Gorleston last month.

Now the married father-of-two is calling for Norfolk County Council to provide a footpath along the stretch of road between Riverside Road and Southtown Road, which is used by everyone from dog walkers to parents pushing children in buggies as a shortcut to get from Gorleston to Yarmouth.

Mr Emmins was walking with son Barry, 17, along his regular route from Riverside Road and had just passed the junction with Malthouse

Lane near the Ferry Boat Inn pub and was heading along a stretch of road bordered on one side by a grass verge with a wire mesh fence and iron railings on the other.

But he was forced to take evasive action as a car approached from the Yarmouth direction near his side, close to the fence, and he fell on his hands and knees.

Fortunately, his injuries were not serious enough to require hospital treatment and he was able to hobble into work, but at the very least he wanted warning signs to be installed telling pedestrians there was no footpath.

“At the moment it is lethal down there. I would like either signs to be put up warning people of the danger or for facilities to be made for residents to walk on because at the moment there are no real safety provisions at all and somebody could get hurt,”Mr Emmins said.

County council spokesman John Birchall said there were no plans to create a pavement or footway along Malthouse Lane and the council had not received any complaints about safety on the road.

He said even carrying out

an inspection would cost several hundred pounds and consequently the council does not inspect them “willy-nilly.”

“If there is an issue down there we would like to hear it from other people because we need to establish

how much traffic there is along

there.

“If we were to establish an issue along there it would have to compete with other parts of Great Yarmouth and beyond in terms of funding.”