Anne is deafblind and, with Sense’s help, began getting involved with campaigns six years ago. Now, she just gets on with it herself. Here, she tells us about her latest campaign success.

"When my council built a new housing estate and retail park down the road from where I live, the main road became very busy and unsafe for me to cross. I couldn’t see or hear well enough to find gaps in the traffic. That road became the fences of a prison camp for me.

"I wrote to the council, explaining the problem and asking them to put in a pedestrian crossing. They refused.

"I asked to meet with the senior traffic engineer. After being fobbed off a few times I finally got a meeting and took him out for a walk to the road.  

"Still they refused to put in a pedestrian crossing. Their justification was that nobody had been killed so it was a safe road. I was angry that people have to die before they’ll put in a pedestrian crossing.

"I thought there was little hope and I was going to give up." 

Shared concerns

"But then a friend who teaches at a local primary school told me that several parents and teachers had raised concern about the children crossing the road on the way to and from school, but she didn’t think anyone had spoken to the council.

"I contacted the head teacher and he kindly agreed to me going to the school during a parents evening to talk to parents, get signatures for a petition for a pedestrian crossing and hand out a short template letter that parents could send to the council.

"With a little help from a neighbour, who works in the print industry (a very useful contact for a campaign!) I got a petition and letters nicely designed and printed, for just the cost of the paper.

"At that parents evening, I gathered over 200 signatures and around 30 people said they’d contact the council directly. I had never thought I’d get that much support.

"The council still didn’t want to know."

Gathering support

"Some of the parents got in touch with me and we got together to brainstorm who else might support the campaign. There was a secondary school, a residential care home for people with learning disabilities, a pub, a local older people’s charity and more. So between us we set about gathering even more support.

"Before I knew it, we had nearly 7,000 signatures on the petition, lots more letters sent, phonecalls made, and, the important thing that I’d overlooked before, pages of coverage in the local newspaper and on the local radio station.

"We kept up the pressure for over a year before the council said they would consult on installing a pedestrian crossing. We mobilised again and lots of people responded to the consultation in support of the crossing.

"Now, after two years, we have one! What’s more, it has tactile paving, a bleeper and a rotating cone. Once again, I can get out safely!

"The support for the campaign was amazing! I couldn’t have done it alone."