Fury as North Tyneside dad is REFUSED driveway despite safety concerns for autistic children
A Shiremoor dad-of-two has been left worrying about the safety of his autistic children after the council refused to install a driveway on his council home.
by Austen Shakespeare · ChronicleLiveNorth Tyneside Council's refusal to install a driveway to the front of a tenant's home has left the full-time carer worrying over the safety of his children.
Peter Atkins, 58, of Lesbury Avenue, Shiremoor, first approached the council in January to build a driveway onto his property. Mr Atkins believed the driveway would allow him to be able to get his children Paige, 16, and Daniel, 27, both of whom live with autism, safely from the car into his home.
Mr Atkins, was worried that his kids could get run into the road unless a gated driveway was installed to prevent this. However, following a visit from the council's occupational therapy team in August, Peter was told earlier this week he did not meet the criteria to permit the construction of a driveway through the council.
Peter said: "I said it is not the issue that my daughter cannot walk, I said this to Occupational Therapy before they can come out. This is about her safety because she doesn't understand. Even my son, who's also autistic, even though he is 27 I still have to latch onto his arm to make sure he is crossing the road properly because he would just walk out in front of a car.
"I'm 58, my partner is in her 40s, my daughter is 16 and 10 stone and if she decided that she wanted to run away or snatch out of my hand when we try to get in her in the house, there would be nothing we could do to stop that. This is a safety issue rather than the fact she can walk."
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Peter is also concerned at the speed at which he has seen cars passing through his street, with some motorists, the dad of two believes, going as fast as "80 miles an hour". The road is also on the route of the replacement 900 bus and large delivery lorries
Peter also looked into paying for a driveway to be done privately but found that a "bog standard drive" would cost around £5-6,000. Mr Atkins continued "We shouldn't have to go down that route, why have we got a blue badge when you can't get any help."
Peter was offered a disabled bay outside his house by the council, however, the Shiremoor resident feels this falls short of what should be done. Peter said: "It doesn't cure anything because that's not what I asked and you get people parking in disabled bays when they are not disabled anyway. You see it all the time in shopping centres, so that wouldn't help me at all."
North Tyneside Council’s director of housing and property services Peter Mennell said: “When someone applies for an adaptation, an assessment will be carried out by one of our occupational therapists. In this case, the occupational therapist completed a thorough assessment and found the request did not meet the requirements for an adaptation.
“We have given Mr Atkins a full explanation for the reasons behind this decision. We will continue to speak to Mr Atkins about the other options available to him.”