An Ealing mother has today launched a petition to upgrade the Castle Bar Park Station footbridge used daily by thousands of local people.

The footbridge, which connects pedestrians from eastern areas of Ealing to Hanwell and Greenford in the west, is the key link by which people in the surrounding community access work, schools and services on the opposite side.

Despite the large numbers who use the footbridge to cross between east and west Ealing, it is in a state of disrepair and inaccessible to many people, says local mum Stephanie Toal.

Explaining the daily difficulty trying to cross the footbridge with her 19-month old son and his pushchair, Stephanie said: "I carry the pushchair on my shoulder, while holding on to my son's hand /harness (trusting him to hold onto the banister that is really too high for him) and holding onto the banister myself in order to steady myself.

"Some days I am assisted by a friendly person, a parent, a mum, a runner, a train passenger, who all offer to carry my pushchair across. It is exhausting to try and do this journey every day, twice a day, 5 days a week and more."

Stephanie has now launched a campaign she hopes will gain enough signatures to reach the desks of Ealing councillors, Ealing MP James Murray and Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps MP.

She points in particular to the schools on either side to highlight the likely volume of pedestrians who use the footbridge every day: to the west, there are approximately 4,000 students at Lycee Francais, while to the east Castlebar School for children with learning difficulties has over 160 pupils, North Ealing Primary has over 700 pupils and Notting Hill & Ealing has over 900.

She added: "I do see other people struggling across the bridge with other items, shopping bags (or wheelie shopping baskets), bicycles, scooters etc. 

"The footbridge and one platform are not accessible to wheelchair users (apart from the platform serving trains from Castle Bar Park to West Ealing). That excludes anyone wishing to travel to West Ealing to connect to the Elizabeth Line and any destination beyond."

As well as relevant MPS, the petition is addressed to Cabinet Cllr Deirdre Costigan and Cllr Aysha Raza and requests support from local Councillors, Cllr Louise Brett, Cllr Claire Tighe and Cllr Ray Wall.

To add your support to the petition to make Castle Bar Park Station Footbridge accessible to all CLICK HERE.