A BLIND disability campaigner has criticised plans to have shared spaces around the Seaway development.

Despite the Department for Transport advising they can be dangerous the £50million Seaway leisure complex includes level areas contrary to safety advice.

Shared spaces are levelled areas where pedestrians can walk, cars can be driven and bikes can be ridden with no noticeable difference between where roads end and pavements begin.

Jill Allen-King, 79, is the secretary of the Southend branch of the National Federation for the Blind and the Southend Pensions’ Campaign.

She said: “The shared space at Victoria Gateway and flat kerbs at City Beach are a disaster and have made the areas a no-go zone for disabled people, particularly the blind - I do not go there at all because of it.

“If the same thing takes place at Seaway, it will also make it another no-go zone for disabled people.

“It is dangerous for children and causes floods because there are no gulleys. Guide dogs use the kerb as a way of knowing they are at the road.

“I desperately want the council to realise we have so many elderly people in our town and it is very worrying all the council can do is think of leisure provision.

“I am just shocked the council is proposing another shared space in Lucy Road, and they are even covering it up on the plans as a ‘public space’.

“If the council had listened to our advice back in 2008, when we did not agree with the Victoria Gateway and City Beach schemes, they may have saved several millions.”

Councillor Andrew Moring, cabinet member for infrastructure, said: “The planning application for Seaway car park is a matter for the council to consider through the planning process and ultimately its development control committee.

“This particular matter has already been picked up by planning officers, who through the planning process will ensure that none of the public highway will be shared space, as currently defined by the Department of Transport.” Shared spaces do remain in Southend however despite more than 4,000 people signing a petition and Government guidance halting their use.