TWIN sisters who both have cerebral palsy and use electric scooters to get around are pleading with the council not to close an underpass they use every day.

Susan and Joan Rogers, 68, of Lesley Ann Skeete Court in Park South, have begged Swindon Council not to fill in the Queen’s Drive subway, which they have been using for 30 years, as they are terrified of crossing the busy road.

The council says the underpass is old and dangerous and plans to replace it with a pedestrian crossing. But Susan says their lives as they know it would end as they would not be able to walk their dogs or meet their friends.

She said: “We have scooters because we can’t walk anymore. It’s our only way of getting out. “We love going over there for lots of reasons, but mainly because we have two miniature daschunds and we take them there to go for walks or we meet our friends.

“It’s our independence, it means we can come and go when we want to.

“If they close it our lives as we live them will end.”

Susan was housebound for about seven years and was then made to cross a busy road leading to a panic attack. She says she now cannot go near busy roads as she would suffer another attack.

She said: “I used to wait at the bottom gate and just cry at seeing all the traffic. I just can’t cross Queen’s Drive because you have to wait in the middle.

“A lot of people don’t understand it. She hopes the magistrates’ court will throw out Swindon Council’s application to close the underpass.

A spokesman for Swindon Council said the lighting, ramp and railing designs are not up to modern standards and it is too narrow.

“We are blocking up the underpass and replacing it with a Toucan pedestrian crossing because the underpass attracts anti-social behaviour and vandalism, and doesn’t meet modern safety standards. We know people avoid using it because they don’t feel safe, particularly at night, which is a problem that will be solved by the road crossing. In all the correspondence and informal consultations that we’ve had, the move has been supported by the majority of people we’ve spoken to, and none of the local councillors objected to the proposals before the planning application was granted last September.

“A number of people in our planning and highways teams have spoken to Joan Rogers on several occasions, beginning from when the plan was first made public last year, with the most recent conversation only last week. We are aware of her concerns and have tried to reassure her about the changes and the reasons for them. To the best of our knowledge, she hasn’t mentioned her sister’s phobia to us in any of those conversations or in any correspondence.

“Because the underpass is part of a public right of way, we have to get permission from the Magistrates’ Court to close it.

“Our case will be heard on June 8, when anyone who wishes to object can make their case to the court.”