12:50pm Friday 30th July 2010
LONG-AWAITED plans to permanently repair the wobbly pavements in George Yard and Union Street are to go ahead despite Government cuts of nearly £6 million in Hampshire County Council’s environment budget.
A spokeswoman said the council was committed to the repairs and that they would go ahead, although the start date had been put back.
At the beginning of July the council said the work might start by the middle of August – now it is saying that it will start within the next two months.
Earlier this year the council announced that the pavements should be repaired permanently after years of problems.
The main problem has been that the pavements are laid on sand, which is then eventually washed away by rainwater. When that has happened contractors have returned to relay the pavements – on sand, which was then again washed away.
It has been a continual danger to pedestrians with one 96-year-old woman sustaining bad bruising to her face and knee after falling over a loose paving stone in Union Street.
Workmen have removed some of the worst paving stones and filled the gaps with asphalt but there are still a number of loose slabs.
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