FOI request (FOI227932)

Sloping path entrance to Community Contact Centre

Requested Wed 15 November 2017
Responded Wed 15 November 2017

Over the summer the amount of cyclists and skateboarders using the sloping easy entrance/exit slope, as a ramp, increased quite significantly.  I saw a number of near misses as people tried to enter and exit the community contact centre.  I saw a man cycle in and, returning a minute later, cycle out of the community contact centre.  I saw teenagers entering the centre to gain an additional runway to launch themselves of the steps  into the passing crowds.

Your staff appear reluctant to come out and say anything.  I asked in the centre whether the responsibility for the steps was the town hall's or Priory Meadow's but no-one was sure.  Priory Meadow does have security cameras that pick up what is happening on the steps and I assumed they would have some responsibility but they appear to allow cyclists and skateboarders.  In not placing no cycling signs at the entrance to Priory Meadow, they have allowed cyclists to come straight of the pavements, through the centre and up your access slope.

Please would you let me know whose responsibility it is to keep the steps safe and secure for users of your centre.

I also witnesses a number of falls, a few broken bikes and a skateboard, where children fell of after jumping off the steps.  Someone has legal responsibility for any injuries sustained so please could you also let me know who that is.

Response

Information not held

Hastings Borough Council holds no information on who is responsible for the steps leading into the Community Contact Centre.  These were built after the agreement between Hastings Borough Council and Priory Meadow Shopping Centre in 1997.