Dear Sir,
Could I please send an appeal to the organisers of the Aycliffe 10k Road Race. While arranging for the roads to be closed around Newton Aycliffe could you please try to accommodate the small army of care workers who find it necessary to use these roads during the closure times.
We work from 6am until 10pm, predominantly with the elderly, disabled and terminally ill, and our visits to these people in their homes are of major importance.
Some of the visits are attended by two people and on Sunday two care workers were meant to attend a bungalow in Bluebell Close at 10am. I managed to get to the road junction by 9.45am and was allowed through the bollards blocking the road, however the girl who was working with me didn’t arrive at the junction until 9.57am, and was told ‘the race had started’ and she wasn’t allowed through. She had to leave her car at the cemetery and walk to the patient’s home making her arrival time late. I thought the race started at Greenfield Comprehensive area? If this is the case it would be a while until the runners arrived at the Stephenson Way junction, during which time this girl could have been allowed to drive through.
Even if the runners were already at the junction area, why wasn’t she given some priority to be allowed through? It’s not as if she was trying to get to Tesco for a loaf! The particular lady we were to visit is bedbound and had been in bed since 6pm the previous evening. This is only one incident, I know there will have been others that morning.
I am incensed that these people think they have to right to prioritise the use of the roads around town just so that they can indulge in a hobby!
It is thoughtless, so please attempt consideration for others while planning next year’s race.
Mrs B Wild