Fence finally installed at Nelson 'death' car park (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Fence finally installed at Nelson 'death' car park

10:30am Tuesday 15th January 2013 in Pendle By Tyrone Marshall, Reporter

LONG-OVERDUE New safety fencing at the Pendle Rise car park which Coun Eileen Ansar (below) has campaigned for. Far left, the fencing in close-up

SUICIDE-proof fencing has been installed at a Nelson car park after a long campaign to make the site safer.

Campaigners have been calling for fencing at the Pendle Rise car park for at least three years, but now mesh fences have been erected at all levels of the multi-storey, in Netherfield Road.

Coun Eileen Ansar, who led the calls for fencing, said it was a long-overdue victory. She said: “This is what everybody has wanted to happen – fencing on all floors of the car park.

“It is exactly what we campaigned long and hard for.

“It might have taken a while to come to fruition but it will be worth it for every life saved, which is the most important thing. I’m pleased that this action has now been taken and that the car park has been made a safer place.”

Renewed calls for the erection of fencing were made in January last year after Ian Nutter, 65, from Barnoldswick, fell to his death from the car park roof.

The keen sportsman was the eighth person to die by falling from the car park in the past 10 years.

One person was also left paralysed and a further 18 people were ‘talked down’ by police negotiators during that period.

Plans for the security fencing were first considered in November 2010 when the council’s executive committee earmarked £40,000 to implement the scheme.

But that came to nothing after the shopping centre went into administration.

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