This is a copy of the letter sent to North Ayrshire and Arran MP Patricia Gibson and Cunninghame North MSP Kenneth Gibson.
I write this as a resident in High Corrie on the Isle of Arran and I write as a person who has suffered multiple spinal injuries going back seven years. Daily living is problem enough when what’s going on in my back can make even walking across a room a painful experience.
However, the really big problem comes when I am forced to drive the car. On Friday I was obliged to take the car for its MOT in Lamlash – a 20-mile return journey. With my back injuries, this means enduring absolutely agonising jolts at every rough bit of road, let alone the potholes which are everywhere. I can drive easily even up to 45mph when the road surface is what any road surface in this country should be. But these stretches are very few and very far between. I now know the road well enough to know where all the very many bad bits are. On these I will have to crawl, even down to 5mph, clinging for dear life to the wheel as the jolts hit or threaten to hit my back and send it into spasm.