Next minute, she was visited by a member of the council’s roading team, who went on a tour of the footpaths she would take, detailing her concerns.
Dena Henderson, who moved into Palmerston from nearby Goodwood about nine months ago, said she recently got a mobility scooter as health issues had begun to impact her ability to get around. And while the scooter was "wonderful", allowing her to visit friends, and make the roughly 1km trek to the shops, or get to the medical centre, the route was far from perfect and after being "nagged at a little bit", she wrote a letter to Waihemo Community Board chairwoman Kathy Dennison outlining her concerns. This week the improvements she suggested were included on the board’s agenda for consideration.
"I’m not really big on moaning about things," Mrs Henderson said.
But with some sections of her 15-minute trip to the East Otago Health Centre either lacking footpaths, or access for those with reduced mobility on to the footpaths, it was a "dangerous route" for her at present.
Even on her journey to the shops in the town’s centre there were sections where she was forced on to the road. Further, Mrs Henderson said, it was not only people with mobility scooters — mothers with prams would probably also be facing the same difficulties.
"You know — this is a small town ... I think we’re probably lucky to have a pavement at all," she said.
Nevertheless, there could be work done to improve the footpaths and when that work was completed "if they could think of the access part", she would be pleased.
Community board chairwoman Kathy Dennison was unable to attend this week’s meeting, but said it was "really good" a council officer had made the effort to see to Mrs Henderson’s concerns.
"That’s what we want in the community," she said.
"There is money available to do those jobs and if there’s a need in the community — more and more people using mobility scooters, and that — we want to make sure they have the ability to get around."
Board deputy chairman Ken Brown, who chaired this week’s meeting, said there were more discussions to be had, but the board had received the information and it was important to be aware of accessibility issues and "try and cater for everybody".
Council roading manager Michael Voss said the board "expressed their support to achieve an effective outcome for Dena Henderson’s concerns over accessibility and staff will now finalise the project’s scope for action".
