Dangerous Access to the Agua Marina Paseo Marítimo

The Paseo Marítimo in the Agua Marina area of Orihuela Costa provides the residents and visitors to the area with a wide promenade to stroll along with excellent views of the coast with it's bays and beaches.

That is unless the member of public is a disabled person with reduced mobility!

There is no easy and safe access to the promenade for persons who either need to use a wheelchair or other walking aids. There is a difference in the level between the roads, parking areas, and pavements leading to the promenade and the level of the promenade itself. There is approximately 50 centimetres difference in height between the two levels. This requires the presence of safe and suitable steps and ramps to permit the public to negotiate access from one level to the other. On this part of the promenade they don't exist!



Let me clarify this statement. Yes there are steps and ramps between the two levels, as can be seen in the photographs, but they are completely unsuitable. The steps are uneven and dangerous. The ramps have been built with a gradient that is far too steep to be negotiated safely by a person using a wheelchair or walking aid. They might as well not be there as a ramp that is built incorrectly is of no value at all!



There are guidelines as to the acceptable gradient that a ramp should be built to. The recommendation is a gradient of 1:12 (8%) which equates to that for each 1 metre travelled a height difference of 8 centimetres is attained. This is for ramps up to 2 metres in length (16 centimetres height difference). Where longer ramps are needed to negotiate greater heights the recommended gradient has to be reduced. It is acceptable to install ramps with a steeper gradient than the 1:12 where these are over a very short distance, such as to negotiate a pavement edge or small single step up to a height of approximately 12 centimetres.



The ramps that are there have been built with a gradient in the region of 1:3.75 (27%), a height of 48 centimetres within a distance of 1.8 metres. What this means in real terms is that, when unaided; it is dangerous for a wheelchair user to travel down the ramp because of the potential to loose control due to the speed gained; it is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for the wheelchair user to go up the ramp due to the physical effort needed, with the possibility of rolling back down. Having spoken to wheelchair users, who have tried to access the promenade via these ramps, they confirmed that in their experience, if they come to the area alone they have to ask members of the public to help them when using the ramps.

This is not acceptable, this is discrimination. This is taking away their dignity.

A report will be submitted to the Orihuela Town Council with a request that this unacceptable situation is rectified without delay. That the ramps and steps are rebuilt to provide safe access to the promenade by all members of the public.