AN urgent call for concerted action to fix the “shameful, dangerous state” of an access road to Grayshott Surgery was issued this week by a village protest group.

Boundary Road Action Group (BRAG) was launched by disabled resident Jem Barnes and fellow patients with mobility problems, who are forced to park at the village hall and go to the surgery on their mobility scooters, because the badly potholed road is too hazardous for their low-slung wheelchair-access vehicles.

Ambulances, too, now park at the village hall rather than risk their vehicles.

Beacon Hill carer for the elderly Anne Probert said. “They have to wheel patients from the surgery across to them in beds. That’s degrading for them.”

BRAG has accused those responsible for improving road safety to the surgery, which has eight GPs and 12,500 patients, of passing the buck rather than working together.

The group circulated 5,000 leaflets within its main catchment area this week, urging more residents to add their voices to the “outraged throng” and to join its action campaign.

Mr Barnes stated: “BRAG wants Hampshire and Surrey County Councils, East Hampshire District Council, Waverley Borough Council, Grayshott Parish Council, Haslemere Town Council, the surgery, NHS Choices, MPs Jeremy Hunt and Damian Hinds, and the road’s residents to work together to reach a swift and final conclusion to the road’s shameful, dangerous state – before it kills someone.

“BRAG is encouraging those with a duty to fix Boundary Road from the Headley Road to the surgery to do so with a safe roadway, pavement,and lighting.”

Despite mounting concerns that the state of the road is a risk to public safety, no long-term solution has yet been found. The situation is complicated because Boundary Road is an unadopted bridleway owned by Hampshire County Council but Grayshott Surgery is actually in Surrey.

All parties agree BRAG,?which has primary responsibility for it as an unadopted road, cannot be expected to foot the bill.

Mr Barnes appealed to Jeremy Hunt both as a local MP and Health Secretary to press for prompt action.

Mr Hunt agreed the access to the surgery was “of particular concern” and said he was working with East Hampshire MP Mr Hinds to resolve the situation by bringing that stretch up to a standard so it could be adopted by Hampshire County Council and maintained as part of the public highway.

Surrey County Council and Waverley were approached to help fund the cost of improvements, but both declined because Boundary Road is in Hampshire.

BRAG committee member Alan Philpott accused Hampshire County Council, which has just spent £400,000 on resurfacing a 10-mile stretch of bridleway to rebrand it as the Meon Valley Trail, of getting its priorities wrong.

“If Hampshire County Council has the money to do that to a bridleway, why not spend considerably less on a 75ft stretch of bridleway in Grayshott to make it passable for the disabled, sick, ill and ambulances to get to the doctors.

“That is a very unbalanced use of public money,” he said.

East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) leader Ferris Cowper, who is the ward member for Grayshott, claimed he had been working hard to get concerted action to resolve the problem.

He said: “I’ve been trying to find a permanent solution bearing in mind it’s not a Hampshire County Council duty. There are promises totalling £35,000 from EHDC, Hampshire County Council, Grayshott Parish Council and Haslemere Town Council and I’ve advised the residents’ association resurfacing is expected to last between eight and 10 years with low or no maintenance. The button has to be pushed by the residents association, because it is their duty of care.”

BRAG?chairman Julia Tarento said: “The association has been working constantly in an attempt to secure sufficient funding to completely resurface that section of the bridleway from Headley Road to the surgery before the winter weather sets in.

“Councillor Cowper has been enormously helpful throughout, facilitating contact with various Hampshire County Council departments, including the head of highways and the rights of way team who deal with bridleways.

“Unfortunately, Surrey County Council, which gave permission for Grayshott Surgery to be built on a location where the only access is over a Hampshire bridleway, is not prepared to help and other relevant parties also seem to be sitting on their hands and refusing to agree their share of the cost.

“Hampshire’s engineering consultants have now estimated a figure of around £70,000 to complete the work satisfactorily.

“Due to the slowness of the funding we can no longer get the work done this year. Short-term repairs will therefore have to be carried out which will add even further to the already over-stretched cost.”