Please join me in inviting Reading Borough and West Berkshire councils to work with local disabled groups to review and increase the number of safe crossings between Tilehurst Village and Little Heath, Cotswold and Sulham.

Since I started to lose my sight in 2020, I have become more and more aware of the difficulties many of us have when navigating our local area and especially crossing busy roads. Tilehurst is a popular suburb of Reading and there are many excellent local schools and independent shops for the community, the problem is that these are divided by the busy commuter route along Hilden’s Drive, Lower Elmstone Drive and Overdown Road, and where there is nowhere safe to cross without a diversion of up to 2 miles. As a visually impaired person, I have often attempted to cross these roads to get to Tilehurst Triangle and have stood for up to 10 minutes waiting for a large enough gap in the traffic. As well as the impact on visually impaired people like myself, other disabled people such as wheelchair users are equally impacted by the lack of dropped kerbs to use and many parents must put themselves and their children at risk each day during the school run.

Unless these roads are improved, many disabled adults, young people and children are robbed of being able to live independent lives as we must rely on others to do things most people take for granted and, in worst case, there may be a serious accident. For me, I am unable to get to my doctor’s surgery, the pet shop or even go for a cup of coffee without putting myself and my guide dog at risk, simply because there is nowhere I can safely cross a road. So therefore, I invite representatives from Reading and West Berkshire councils to join me and put on a pair of simulation goggles and see if they feel safe to step into traffic and then to work with the local disability groups to identify ways to improve the safety of all pedestrians.