Cardiff mum's fight for disabled daughter to cross road safely

The mother of a teenager with cerebral palsy has been fighting for 10 years to make a junction safe for pedestrians.

Sue Hurrell first asked for a dropped kerb and lights at the Colchester Avenue and Penylan Road junction in Cardiff a decade ago when she struggled with her son's pushchair.

Now she is asking again for lights, as her daughter Immy, 15, has difficulties with her wheelchair.

Cardiff council said it planned to ask the Welsh Government to fund the work.

Sue said Immy was unable to meet friends and go shopping because there were no safe places to cross on the busy road.

"Walking about together as a family, it's difficult to get across the junction, it is safe to do so at certain times but it's complicated as you have to wait for the lights and the cars," Ms Hurrell said.

"There is no proper island in the middle with safety barriers, so the wheelchair doesn't fit, if Immy doesn't time her crossing right, she is putting herself at risk."

Immy said: "I always look for the green man, but there isn't a green man and I find it difficult to cross the road because it's not very safe."

Ms Hurrell first wrote to the council more than 10 years ago when her son was born and she struggled to get a double pushchair up Penylan Road safely.

After three years of correspondence she received a letter which agreed "pedestrian facilities were justified at the junction".

Dropped kerbs were installed on several side street corners in 2012, but no progress was made on the junction lights, so she wrote to the council again in 2013 and was told the project was "unlikely to be implemented in the foreseeable future".

Last year, Ms Hurrell was told the council had secured funding, but this spring she found "no indication about further action or timescales for our local junction".

"There are no safe routes in any direction from our house. This means that Immy can't have her independence," she said.

"It is exhausting for the individuals to have to do all the fighting."

She said she is asking the council to find the £260,000 funding for these junction improvements or look at an alternative solution.

"I fear the window of opportunity has gone and she won't get this time back. Come 2021 this scheme will have been on the list 10 years and we are back to square one," she said.

The council said: "The proposals developed by the council and which the public have been consulted on, would see formal pedestrian crossing points around the whole junction at the Penylan Road end of Colchester Avenue, and a new 'all red' phase introduced to enable people to cross safely.

"The council currently intend to resubmit a bid to Welsh Government for funding at the end of the year."