Lymington and Pennington Town Council members challenged to cross Captains Row on High Street on mobility scooter by Bottom of Town Group

A CAMPAIGNER has thrown down the gauntlet to councillors by challenging them to cross Lymington High Street on a mobility scooter.

Jon Ellis of Bottom of Town Group told Lymington and Pennington Town Council he found it “scary” when he recently borrowed a scooter and tried to traverse the Captains Row crossing.

Mr Ellis invited any councillor that wants to try using the crossing on a scooter for themselves to join him there at 1pm this Saturday.

The Bottom of Town Group has been campaigning for years to raise the crossing, claiming it would be safer and easier for people with limited mobility to use.

“We know it’s not Lymington and Pennington Town Council’s responsibility,” he told councillors. “It’s a highways matter, but we can’t help but feel if you were to get behind us it would help the county move on it.

“Lymington has an increasingly elderly population, and lots of those people are going to be reliant on mobility scooters.”

Mr Ellis told councillors the group had gathered 1,500 signatures in town last year on a petition calling for the county council to raise the Captains Row crossing.

He also said that a county council survey of the crossing in 2014 suggested the crossing be raised. He continued: “But the council now seems to have rejected its earlier findings on what is reasonable for that crossing.”

Mr Ellis pointed out that a number of Bottom of Town Group members were at the council meeting to support him. He told councillors the Captains Row crossing, which he claims sees about 10,000 people crossing it a day in the summer, remains “unimproved”.