Woman’s desperate plea for pathway to be gated off to prevent cyclist crash

Maureen Ransome with her guide dog Eve. She is wishing to put a gate across a path near her home to stop anti social behaviour.Picture: Nick Butcher (Image: Archant © 2018)

That is a desperate plea from a pensioner who is scared to leave her home due to cyclists using a footpath that leads to nowhere except for her house in Gorleston.

Maureen Ransome, 72 and who is registered blind, has asked Norfolk County Council if it can install a gate on a path by her home in Newtown Cross.

The footpath has a no thoroughfare sign and suddenly ends at a fence just past the entrance to her home.

However cyclists keep using the pathway as some mistakenly believe it is a continuation of a path, while others are known to throw their bikes over the fence to reach a cycle path on the other side.

The red area marks where the path suddenly ends and the yellow area marks where Margaret Ransome wants the fence installed.Picture: Google Maps (Image: Archant)

Mrs Ransome and her guide dog, Eve, have had several close calls when they could have been hit by cyclists, and she has been forced to cut a bush in her front garden to improve visibility.

She also says there is a issue of antisocial behaviour by the enclosed area by the end of the path, such as drug taking and people urinating.

Due to the problems Mrs Ramsome is too scared to leave her home at night.

Despite a plea to her MP Brandon Lewis, Norfolk County Council says it is not possible to install a gate, which would not be locked, to prevent people using the end of the path.

Mrs Ransome, a mother-of-two and a grandmother, said: “There have been times when I could have been knocked over and sent flying. It worries me and concerns me. I am too frightened to go out at night.”

The back garden of neighbour Simon Pitts, a taxi driver at Swifts, backs onto the pathway and he supports calls for a gate to be installed.

He said: “It is a safety issue, they come flying along there. I call it the road to nowhere.”

In a letter to Mr Lewis Norfolk County Council said: “Regrettably there is nothing further we are able to provide with regards to cyclists misusing the gateway as we are not able to gate the highway.”

A county council spokesman added: A Norfolk County Council spokesperson, said: “We were sorry to hear of concerns about cyclists misusing the dead end path off Newton Cross. We’ve done all we can to ensure barriers are in place and signage is clear and have made some adjustments to sign height which we hope may improve matters in the future.”