wightdogs.com ISLE of WIGHT DOGS and OWNERS

Whilst walking the dog this morning I was heading up Ampthill Road in Ryde heading towards Appley Park. At the top of the road I turned right onto the Public Footpath which runs between Ampthill Road and the top corner of Appley Park, and was confronted with the dog bin precariously balanced in an upright position as the base of its concrete post had been smashed, assumably by a vehicle driving into it, but it was still attached the the ground by its re-enforcing steel rods.

This heavy post and bin must have been finely balanced in this position by someone as it took no effort at all for me to lay it against the fence, as in the picture. Had a child of come along and touched it it could easily have collapsed on them. One of the plastic bollards stopping cars from entering the footpath has in the last few days been replaced as both of them were at acute angles, having been repeatedly driven into.

On continuing my walk along the Appley Park perimeter path I came down the steep hill to the Parks eastern corner, where it intersects with Public Footpath R90 running between the lifeboat station and Puckpool. There is a gate here which is supposed to block access of vehicles attempting to drive along the sea front. As usual it had been abandoned unlocked and was wide open, but its heavy metal retaining post which is removable and inserts into a metal housing had been almost flattened to the ground by a vehicle driving into it at what must have been considerable speed to cause such damage. And the bottom of this post has literally been bent to this angle by the impact as the part below ground is still upright..

The insert shows a close up of the top of the metal post which clearly shows traces of blue and white paint, the colour of the councils vehicles livery perhaps?

How seriously are the council taking public safety on Public Footpaths on the Island? And if someone was unable to see a metal post in front of them should they even be driving? Let alone on Public Footpaths. The gates along this path have been routinely left open for months despite it being reported.

I have sent a report of this incident to the council via the fixmystreet.com website http://www.fixmystreet.com/report/193322 as the council do not answer my emails. The fixmystreet.com website can be used by anyone to report anything to councils as the website forward the reports to councils for you and displays them on their website.