AN ANDOVER woman with arthritis is calling on the council to put more benches in Andover’s residential areas after the lack of places to stop on her daily walk ‘left her in tears’.

Christine Torrance, of Eastfield Road, has been diagnosed with early onset arthritis in her hip, and advised by her doctor to get regular exercise to help it.

However, the 64-year-old quickly found that many of the routes around her home were not open to her, due to a lack of places to stop and rest.

Speaking to the Advertiser, Christine said: “I have been doing some walking around Andover. The doctors told me that, if it gets too painful, I should sit down. But there is nowhere to sit down!

“There are plenty [of benches] in town, and in areas right next to town, but that’s about it!”

From her house, Christine has attempted various routes. In particular, she said that while doing a loop walking all the way up Vigo Road, and then back down London Road, the first bench she came across was outside the fire station - when she was nearly home.

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“Sometimes I am almost in tears,” she said.

“I have sat on a wall before, and people say ‘You can’t sit there, that’s our wall’.”

She continued: “I am trying to get to my 10,000 steps a day and all I need is to be able to sit down for two minutes.

“It’s not just me - there are a lot of people a lot older than me who must be struggling.”

Christine added that, on one occasion around a fortnight ago, she returned home “in agony” and her daughter , Claire Whittaker, phoned Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) to report the lack of benches.

She was told that someone from the relevant department would get back to her, but says she is yet to hear anything further.

Christine says that she doesn’t understand why benches which used to be on the streets surrounding her have been removed.

“The only thing I can think is that it is due to Covid, but if that’s it then now that they are saying that nobody has to isolate or anything, they should put them back!”

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Community and leisure portfolio holder, Cllr David Drew, said: “No benches on TVBC land have been removed in the past few years in this area. However, we hope to be able to speak to the resident to understand if and where additional bench or benches might usefully be installed in future.”

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