A PARTIALLY sighted Otley man has won his campaign to have pedestrian crossings at the junction of Boroughgate and Crossgate adapted to help blind and disabled people.

Neville Birch, 62, who gets about with the help of his guide dog, Danny, voiced fears for his safety a few months ago to the Royal National Institute for the Blind.

Officials there wrote to Leeds City Council on his behalf - and now the council has announced it is to take action.

This week Mr Birch, of St Clair Road, said he was delighted with the news.

"I am blind in my left eye and can see partially with my right eye, but you don't like going out if you can't see where you are going.

"I have to say to people - 'can you tell me if the green man's showing?'

"Once we were crossing near the Skipton building society and we nearly got knocked down. One day somebody's going to get knocked down there with the big lorries coming down."

He was over the moon when he heard this week that the council was to take action. Plans include adding textured 'tactile' surfaces to direct blind people to the crossing.

There are also plans to put knobs underneath the push buttons which will spin when it is safe to cross. And pedestrian crossings will be upgraded throughout Leeds, according to a council spokesman.

Mr Birch said: "I was excited when I heard about the changes, but I'm glad that for once, somebody's prepared to listen and do domething about it. The disabled have been at a disadvantage for years."

Iain Warwick, an information officer for the Royal National Institute for the Blind in Leeds, who wrote to Leeds City Council on behalf of Neville Birch, welcomed the changes.

Mr Warwick said: "It's excellent news. The council have promised this all the way along. Mr Birch contacted us as a visually impaired man, and we were quite pleasantly surprised by the council's reaction. I'm very pleased that they are doing something."

A former worker at Leeds Bradford Airport, Mr Birch was shattered when he was forced to give up his job when his sight began to deteriorate 30 years ago .

Mr Birch added: "It tore the life out of me. I was devastated. I could not see anything and I was fumbling about and knocking stuff over."

But in November 1997, he was able to use a white cane with the help of social services, and believes that other blind or partially sighted people would benefit from the same help.

He said: "I was struggling on for about 30 years before this. I was stuck at home and I was brooding. I used to worry about getting on buses."

Now he is able to walk into town to go shopping with the help of his guide dog, Danny, which is a great boost to his wife, Maureen, who suffers from arthritis.

He is a member of Otley's Disability Advisory Group, which is identifying places in Otley which cause problems for disabled people to Leeds City Council's highways department.

He added: "It's a step in the right direction. I hope that with a little bit of pressure we may be able to walk safely without breaking our necks. Life's still out there - let's join in."

Now he is calling on Otley's blind and disabled residents to join forces to make their voices heard.

Mr Birch said: "I'm just trying to get more blind people interested in their environment in Otley - and I think a lot of those people are staying at home. Why should people who are disabled and blind stay shut away in a cupboard to gather dust?"

Mr Birch said that he felt there should be more understanding between pedestrians and motorists.

"A great study needs to be done by the police and the council's traffic department," he said.

"People push their prams out into the road at pedestrian crossings and it is not fair to motorists. There has got to be a level of understanding."

l The Disability Advisory Group will meet on February 2 from 10am to noon at the Civic Centre and on March 23. For further information about the group's activities, call 466713.

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