“Enough is enough” calls Cllr Lynn Gibbon, as she brings 1,100 -strong petition to Cheshire West and Chester Council to demand urgent repairs to unsafe streets in Northwich town centre.
Councillor Lynn Gibbon, the Shadow Cabinet Member for Inclusive Economy, Regeneration and Digital Transformation, presenting her petition to Cheshire West and Chester’s October 2025 Full Council meeting last month. It calls for urgent action to make Witton Street and High Street in Northwich safe and accessible.
The petition highlights a decade of neglect since the cancellation of the second stage of the town’s street refurbishment in 2015. Residents say the town’s main shopping streets have become “dangerous and discriminatory,” with broken paving, raised grids, tarmac-filled drains, and steep, uneven access points that fail to accommodate accessibility needs.
The petition is also calling for urgent repairs to protect disabled residents, older people, and families with prams, following repeated reports of injuries and near-misses. Between 2018 and 2025, the ambulance service recorded 92 incidents in the town centre — roughly one every month — not including those who went to hospital independently.
Cllr Gibbon explained to the Full Council meeting that: “People are fed up with seeing little old ladies fall and smash their faces. My fellow councillor, Norman Wright, is still recovering from concussion and a broken arm after a fall last December. Another resident said that their own grandmother suffered a fall and never recovered. These are much more than statistics — these are people’s lives.
“Northwich has the highest number of emergency hospital admissions for falls in the borough — 728- compared with an average of 245 elsewhere. Despite this, the Council’s own Falls and Joint Strategic Needs Assessment recommendations have not been implemented and pavement conditions continue to deteriorate.
£1.9 million has paid out in claims for injuries caused by road and pavement defects in recent years, with a further £2.36 million pending, while the Council has failed to reinvest £928,000 raised in parking charges from Northwich since 2018 (over £1 million when including figures from Marbury Park) into fixing the streets.
Cllr Gibbon is calling for the petition to be referred to the Council’s Places Scrutiny Committee for urgent examination.
“This Council finds money for car parks and empty offices, but not for safe streets. The cost ofinaction is counted in broken bones, hospital beds, and shattered confidence. People are seen falling almost every week. When older residents are scared to walk to the shops, something has gone badly wrong — and it’s time the Council put it right'
