Hampshire County Council crews repairing ‘dangerous’ broken paving outside Tesco in The Square, Pennington
REPAIRS to “dangerous” broken paving in Pennington are to be carried out by Hampshire County Council after a raft of complaints over public safety.
As reported by the A&T, Lymington mayor Cllr Jack Davies and local residents have been calling for repairs to the area outside Tesco Express in The Square for more than a year.
The Land Registry has now confirmed the land in question is “unregistered”, creating a situation that left the county council and Tesco pointing fingers at each other over who is responsible for upkeep.
A spokesperson for Hampshire County Council has now told the A&T: “Our initial view was that this paved area was entirely owned by a third-party landowner, although not Tesco PLC.
“It is not uncommon for land ownership at boundaries to be unclear, so while work continues to confirm the ownership, and in the interests of public safety, we have arranged for repairs to the whole area of damaged paving, recognising that this issue has already taken some time to resolve. This work is due to be completed shortly.”
Local resident Kelly Field said that while she and her fellow campaigners are glad to see repairs being made, more action needs to be taken to make the area safe for pedestrians by removing the dropped kerb or installing bollards to prevent people from parking cars there.
“It’s good to see that after more than a year of this stalemate situation, Hampshire County Council’s highways department has taken responsibility and acted,” Kelly told the A&T.
“However, this is clearly a temporary measure and the permanent solution needs to include removing the drop kerb and installing bollards to prevent parking on the pavement and to allow local residents to walk safely on this busy street.”
Kelly, who is a member of the Pennington Community Action Group Facebook page, continued: “It’s taken 12 months of persistent campaigning to Tesco and the county council and, although it should have never taken this long, the outcome does prove the power of local people speaking up for their community.”
Giving his response, Cllr Davies said: “I’m really pleased to see the pavement repaired and I’m grateful to Kelly, who has been working with me over the past year to get it sorted.
“However, there needs to be assurances from the county council about the ongoing maintenance of this part of the highway.
“The only way to stop the cars parking here is to take away the dropped kerb. Either that or turn them into proper parking bays. This halfway house situation helps nobody.”
A Land Registry spokesperson confirmed that while Tesco has a leasehold for the building, the area of pavement in question outside the store is unregistered, adding: “Unfortunately we do not know who owns it.”
