It comes after the disability audit that was presented to Salisbury City Council on November 14. 

Councillor Lynne Blackwood, who was only elected to the city council this month, invited the Journal to St Paul's to speak about and show the most problematic areas of accessibility in her ward.

Cllr Blackwood explained how many areas of St Pauls pose significant challenges in accessibility due to the narrowness of the pavements, road conditions, poor placement of dropped kerbs and other issues.

Cllr Blackwood said: “We’ve catalogued ‘death traps.’ For example, on Devizes Road, there is a dipped curve. Someone fell out of their wheelchair it is so narrow.”

The narrowness of the Devizes Road pavements poses challenges not only for wheelchair users but also for parents pushing prams and walking with children and travellers carrying suitcases.

Cllr Blackwood was joined by one of the city council's leaders, Cllr Victoria Charleston, who said the speed at which vehicles travel on Devizes Road, coupled with the narrowness of the pavements, makes walking on the road with her children frightening.

Cllr Charleston said: “The speed of the traffic that comes up it is a real problem. It a very well-used route into town by pedestrians. An awful lot of people walk up and down it.

"We do it daily, but it gets incredibly narrow to the point that if I’m walking with the pram and my daughter who’s three, I’ll walk with her in front of me, because there’s not space to have her next to me, and then if you get an HGV lorry coming up next to you, it’s pretty scary.”

Cllr Blackwood added that she has almost been blown over by the draft of lorries while walking down Devizes Road with her walking frame.

One of the most problematic roads that Cllr Blackwood wanted to highlight was Gas Lane.

Cllr Blackwood, who uses a wheelchair when possible, but often walks with a walking frame because it is difficult and time-consuming to get her electric wheelchair out of her home and onto the narrow pavement, said she noticed many of the accessibility issues first-hand while campaigning, during which she visited the area around Gas Lane frequently, finding some roads completely inaccessible.

Cllr Blackwood said: “In the end, I said, ‘Please, no more!’ because the pavements were so bad with the walking frame and there are a couple of roads I will not go down because it’s just impossible- too steep for me.”

Cllr Blackwood has visited the area multiple times to discover, catalogue and photograph problematic spots. She added that she has seen wheelchair users having to travel on the road down Gas Lane because the pavements are so unnavigable.