THE husband of a disabled pensioner in Charford says his wife is unable to go out alone because of the “atrocious” state of the pathways and car park near their home.

Lynda Jones, 65, of Wesley Walk, suffers from a muscle-wasting condition and arthritis, so needs to use a support aid to get around, but is unable to even get to her car on her own because of the number of potholes in the car park.

Mrs Jones’ husband Keith, 67, said: “When she’s pushing her wheelchair across the car park it’s atrocious. When she’s cleared the atrocious car park she goes up an atrocious footpath. It’s on an incline and it’s covered in green algae. It’s like a patchwork quilt – bits of tarmac have been put down, bits of concrete in little patches – it looks disgraceful. And there’s no way of her getting from the back of our house to any of the shopping areas around by us because there’s no dropped kerbs.

“She’s not getting any better, she’s only getting worse, and then she’ll have even greater difficulty getting across the car park. It’s the only place we can park as people don’t let her park nearer to the house because, of course, they want to park as close to their houses as possible.”

Bromsgrove District Councillor Michael Thompson has appealed twice to Bromsgrove District Housing Trust (BDHT), who own the footpath and car park, to make the surfaces more wheelchair friendly, but still no work has been done.

He said: “The pathway is lethal. BDHT’s decision not to address this problem is heartless. In this day and age it is appalling that Lynda, who is registered disabled, has to walk across this terrain every time she wants to go out. Both the pathway and carpark should be properly resurfaced, the kerb from the pathway should be lowered and Lynda should have a disabled parking place near the entrance to her house.”

According to Cllr Thompson and Mr Jones, a neighbour’s elderly mother once fell on the same footpath, seriously injuring herself and resulting in a compensation pay-out from BDHT. The trust refused to comment on this.

Graeme Anderson, director of resources at BDHT, said: “Mike Brown, our chief executive, visited Mrs Jones in Charford last week to discuss access to and from her home as there are significant steps both at the front and rear of her property.

“As this is not a BDHT-owned property, we have previously advised to Mrs Jones in March that she would need to meet with an occupational therapist as there are wider issues that need to be addressed and resolved, and we would encourage her to progress this so they can help with a number of urgent adaptations she requires.

“We are currently looking at ways to improve the pathway and add a dropped kerb but this is a small part of the overall issue.”

Mr Jones denies he and his wife were advised to meet with an occupational therapist in March, and claims it was not until October they were told this.

BDHT say it will notify residents with more details when the work is set to start.