Kez Adey never planned to become the leading voice for the cause of accessibility in Salisbury, but she has taken up the mantle dutifully.

Walking became extremely painful for Kez following a failed surgery following a slipped disc nearly 10 years ago. Since then, she has used a wheelchair when travelling outside her home.

During the pandemic, Kez began blogging about her life experience and getting in contact with others in Salisbury who had experienced both mental and physical health problems.

Gradually, she became the centre of a large social support group for people with disabilities.

Read more: Salisbury City Council: Calls for change around disability access

Read more: Cllr Blackwood highlights hazardous road and pavement conditions

Travelling around Salisbury, Kez noticed many of the problems faced by those with disabilities in simply getting around, from poorly dropped kerbs, rough, badly maintained pavements, tree roots pushing up pavements, and holes in both pavements and roads. Kez made improving these issue part of her activism.

She has since performed numerous audits with Salisbury city councillors and one Wiltshire councillor, escorting them across the city and showing them the hazards and obstacles posed not only to disabled and wheelchair users but also able-bodied pedestrians.

On Friday, Kez invited the Journal on an audit through Stratford sub Castle and other parts of the city.

She started with Stratford sub Castle because she considers this one of the most problematic areas.

Many pavements are cracked and broken; there are places where pavements are not routed properly around trees, becoming impossibly narrow for a wheelchair, exacerbated by a rough pavement surface caused by tree roots pushing through; on some roads, the pavement gives way to driveways with very rough brick surfacing; multiple junctions feature abnormally wide crossings with poorly placed dropped kerbs.

During the audit, Kez got out of her wheelchair to remove the leaves from a giant hole in the pavement to make its depth more obvious. She said the hole had been observed during an audit and reported on the MyWilts app but had yet to be repaired.

Kez said many green areas around Salisbury remain inaccessible, including the two nearest her home, requiring her to drive further away if she wants to bring her grandson to the park.

Kez said: “I live up on Bemerton Heath and we’ve got a massive green area and we’ve got a folly behind us, so like a wood- neither of them are accessible.”

Kez said improvements have been made to some parks around town, most notably Victoria Park, which is accessible, but she’s still unable to visit many green spaces in Salisbury with her grandchild. Salisbury Cathedral and the surrounding area in the Close is also accessible, despite architectural changes being impossible on most buildings due to their listed status.

Kez added that the city centre is also mostly accessible, with the largest hurdles being poorly placed a-frames and occasional loose stones.

Kez said: “All we need is people to listen. It’s not all about money; it’s about getting the bin men to put the bins back against the wall and not in the middle of the paths and stupid things like that.”