Status unknown
Hazards on public footpath
Reported anonymously at 11:01, Thu 14 March 2019
Sent to North Warwickshire Borough Council and Warwickshire County Council 4 minutes later. FixMyStreet ref: 1571823.
There is a dangerous public footpath which has caused at least one injury in 2018. The path is dangerous because of a collection of hanging baskets and outdoor pot plants. We have included a photograph and you can see from this that the pathway on Church Lane, Middleton is green, caused by the moss from hanging baskets reseeding. This is compounded by the use of an automatic irrigation system which renders the moss on the path both wet and slippery at several times during the day. Compounded with this is a visibility issue later on in the year when plant growth from the baskets hangs down over the footpath. In effect the plant growth reduces the access height of the footpath from approximately 2100mm to 1750mm and their protrusion increases from approximately 500 mm to 700mm. You can also see from the photograph that there is a collection of pot plants placed on the public footpath. The hazards caused by this situation are a risk to an able-bodied person. To someone with a disability that hinders their mobility or vision the risks increase dramatically. Identifiable hazards include: • Slippery moss on pathway. • Hanging baskets and plant growth impeding the public footpath. • Hanging basket growth restricting visibility. • Potted plants on the public footpath. Identifiable risks include: • Risk of slipping due to identified poor ground conditions. • Risk of tripping due to obstructed footpath and obstructed visibility. • Risk of falling due to slips and trips caused by poor ground conditions, obstructed footpath and obstructed visibility. Appropriate control measures after evaluating the risks: • The only complete solution is to remove the hazards and clean the footpath which would remove the risk. • Another option would be to install a collective barrier system to prevent people tripping on the identified obstacles. This would effectively be a permanent fence outside the property, reducing the usable footpath to less than 300mm. • The minimum control measures would be to use warning signs to make people aware that they could suffer harm due to slippery ground conditions and poor visibility. However, this would not remove the hazard, just lower the risk. As concerned residents of Middleton we do hope that you address this safety issue and get the hazards removed from the public footpath as soon as is reasonably practicable.
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