Lymington and Pennington Town Council calling for action from Hampshire County Council over chaotic Captains Row junction

Fresh calls have been made to address a “chaotic” junction at the foot of Lymington High Street.

At the latest full town council meeting, Pennington ward councillor Jack Davies tabled a motion to “improve connectivity” for pedestrians between the High Street and Quay Street as they cross Captains Row.

He said the call follows repeated requests from town residents and the Bottom of Town Group to make the junction safer.

Reading his motion, Cllr Davies said: “Lymington and Pennington Town Council seeks to improve connectivity between the High Street and Quay Hill, Quay Street and the quay for pedestrians, and especially for persons who have mobility issues [and use] wheelchairs, mobility scooters, sticks or frames, or white sticks.

“The current unimproved crossing over Captains Row is the busiest in Lymington. It is chaotic and physically uneven with unimproved kerbs, no tactile strips for visually impaired persons, no clear route for mobility impaired persons and nothing to indicate to drivers of motor vehicles that they must give way to pedestrians.”

The meeting heard there had been 54 responses to a survey of mobility impaired persons, conducted in August, that showed “many such persons express reluctance or inability to visit the quay due to the risk associated with crossing Captains Row”.

The motion concluded: “Lymington has a large number of elderly and mobility impaired people among its residents, many of whom are restricted in this way. Subsequent to a report undertaken back in 2014, this council requests that Hampshire County Council looks again at measures to improve pedestrian safety at the junction of the High Street and Captains Row.”

Cllr Alan Penson said there is a “lot of support” for the proposal and pointed out he has “long been critical” of the issues with the junction.

But he told the meeting the motion was only asking for the county council to “look again” at the proposed improvements.

“They’ve been looked at many times but not much has happened,” he said. “If we ask them to ‘look again’ we know what the answer will be.

“We should be going back to [the county council] to say, ‘we need something doing for mobility impaired people getting to the quay’.”

He called for the motion’s wording to be amended to say the town council is calling on the county council to “investigate and take action to provide access for people with impaired mobility” and this change was accepted.

Cllr Jacqui England requested a further wording change to call for “safe access” for people, which was accepted before councillors voted in favour of the motion.

Last June the A&T reported on the Bottom of Town group vowing to maintain its pressure on the county council to make changes at Captains Row after a tourist fell and broke her arm.