Jack Ince, a 14-year-old disabled teenager from Everton, is urging Liverpool Council to listen to people with accessibility issues as he campaigns for vital pavement changes near his home. Jack, who uses an electric wheelchair and was born with cerebral palsy, wants dropped kerbs installed between his home on Landsdowne Place and Breckfield Road North to help him get his “independence back.”
Campaign for safer route
Jack contacted the local authority last December to request changes to the route he travels to visit a shop less than half a mile away. However, the city’s highways department told him no changes were planned in the area. Undeterred, Jack has launched a formal petition calling for dropped kerbs to be installed from Mere Lane to Rash’s Convenience Store on Breckfield Road North.
The current pavement forces Jack to go into the road on his journeys, which the petition says places him and others at “significant risk to oncoming traffic and prevents him from moving about his local area with the independence and dignity that other young people take for granted.”
Support from community
Jack’s campaign has gained support from users and staff at The Breckfield Centre, where he has been visiting for the past five years. Paul Robinson Jr, youth and community officer at Breckfield & North Everton Neighbourhood Council Ltd, said: “Jack came to us for advice because he had got the cold shoulder from the council. He’s been here long before I have and he’s always faced obstacles like this. As he’s getting older, he wants to have his independence, he just wants to go to the shop. We’re 100% behind him, we’ve got a petition up in the centre and had dozens come in to sign it. We’re sharing it on our social media too.”
Jack, who turns 15 this week, said: “I’m turning 15 and I want to be able to go to the shops on my own and get my independence back. It’s really hard for me, I have to go into the road sometimes. I sent a letter to the council but they didn’t reply at first. Then they said there were no future works in the area. I was really upset and I was really trying to get this done. I have a visual impairment so I can’t see sometimes when I’m moving. I started this campaign last Christmas because it was starting to be an annoyance. We gave the council time.”
Council response
The petition calls on Liverpool Council’s highways team to survey the route and install the kerbs to ensure wheelchair users can remain on the pavement along their journey, describing them as a “basic and well-established accessibility feature.” Jack also had a message for the city council: “Please, please listen to all the wheelchair users in this area. Please support us, please listen to everyone.”
A Liverpool Council spokesperson said: “Improving road safety and accessibility across the city is a key priority, and these considerations are central to our highways improvement programme. Whenever new highway schemes are introduced, or developments are brought forward by third parties, we strongly encourage measures that improve pedestrian access, including the provision of dropped kerbs where appropriate. We are currently delivering a range of projects to make it safer and easier for people to walk, wheel and cycle across Liverpool, and this work will continue over the coming months and into next year. We recognise the importance of dropped kerbs in helping people move around their communities independently. While requests for new dropped kerbs are considered where funding permits, we do not currently have the capacity to deliver additional installations outside of planned works during this financial year. However, suggestions from residents will be taken into account as future programmes of work are developed.”
