Sandringham Estate path blockage causes disruption

Sandringham Estate is in the process of developing a new visitor pedestrian route, but this has caused problems for elderly people.

The new route will connect the car park to the shop, cafe and new ticket office.

However, a direct path to the visitor centre is currently blocked off, resulting in a longer walk for visitors to get to the restaurant and shop.

John Colwell of Lynn said he can no longer take his 92-year-old parents to the restaurant for lunch as they can not cope with the longer walk.

They noticed the issue on the first Sunday of this month.

He said: “To most able bodied visitors this longer walk would be insignificant.

“However elderly visitors who walk with the help of walking sticks or walking aids would really struggle with this longer walk.

“My wife and I met friends at Sandringham for lunch today [Wednesday 13th] and we spoke to a number of people who felt strongly about this issue.”

Mr Colwell added he had not received a reply from Sandringham Estate when raising the issue with them through email.

A spokeswoman for the Sandringham Estate told the Lynn News that “various options are being explored with a view to creating one central arrival point for visitors.”

This is part of a wider development of the visitor centre and car parks.

The purpose of the new route is to bring pedestrians from the car park to the front of the buildings instead of the rear.

In turn, this should allow them to find the entrances and collect tickets more easily.

“We recognise the current route is slightly further from the car parks and this will be taken into consideration as the plan develops, with priority given to the positioning of the disabled car parking spaces.”