A CONCERNED user of a sports club in Almondsbury has spoken out after repairs to a dangerous broken step have been delayed by five weeks.

The step, on an external metal staircase at the Almondsbury Sports and Social Club, became unstable after splitting at the beginning of June, but despite staff at the club having been informed, a permanent fix yet to happen.

Temporary repairs that were made three weeks ago, including cable ties and red tape, are still in place, but the step is not completely stable.

Louise Lockyer, a physiotherapist has run classes for elderly people for more than 20 years, has said that her sessions at the club are at risk, as she does not feel comfortable with some of the older group members – up to 92 years old – using the steps in case there is an accident.

“If there is a split step, you put tape across the stairs and tell people they cannot go upstairs until it is fixed, but to it with cable ties and leave it this long is unacceptable.

“There were two weeks when it was just floating, rocking. If it was an emergency then I suppose it would be ok to bodge it for a few days, but it has been like this for three of the five weeks since it was broken.

“Many of the people who come to my sessions are very fit and could go run a lap of the field if I asked them to, but then there are some who are having falls at home and are quite frail.

“When you are that unsteady, you just need that slight wobble and you are backwards.”

When asked by the Gazette, many members of her group said they could not understand why repairs had still not been carried out and said that they knew it was a hazard, but others might not realise until it was too late.

“What I don’t want to do is say I can’t teach the class until the step is fixed,” said Louise. “It’s what I ought to be doing as if I keep coming up here then I am essentially complicit in saying it is ok when it is not.

“But to them it is as much a social and welfare group as it is physio.”

She said that one of the members of her class, brought a handyman down who said he could fix the step that day for a small sum, but he was sent away.

“It’s not acceptable that is has been left, it looks like a minor problem but it isn’t. It’s almost disrespectful to the community and the people who use the facility to leave it like that.”

Cllr Phil Hall, chairman of Almondsbury Parish Council, who own the site, agreed that there was a “problem with communication”.

“Making necessary repairs rests with the management committee,” he said. If they had not asked us to fix it then, by now, they should have fixed it themselves.

“We need to make sure that the committee know to contact us at times like this.”

Keith Burchell, one of the trustees on the management committee, told the Gazette that as soon as they had been informed of the damage, they were on the case and have had someone measure up the step, with repairs hopefully taking place by the end of the week.