ONE man's fight to avoid the road to ruin has finally been won - with help from the Citizen.

The plight of wheelchair-bound pensioner Denys Wright, who was ordered to appear in court because he couldn't afford to pay almost £1,500 towards the upkeep of a road he is not able to use, was highlighted in last week's edition.

This week, magistrates ruled in his favour after daughter Valerie Davies pleaded his case and handed the bench a copy of the Citizen.

Denys's nightmare began when Fylde Borough Council slapped the disabled 75-year-old, who lives in Gracamy Avenue, Warton, with a mammoth bill for carrying out repairs to a part of the privately-owned road which he wouldn't even be able to use.

On Monday (July 7), presiding magistrate Richard Rhodes ruled the road repair scheme was insufficient, much to the delight of Mrs Davies who said: "As far as I'm concerned, it's a big victory for the little man.

"When I was putting my father's case I was nervous because I had never done anything like that before.

"While I was in the stand putting my objections I handed the magistrates a copy of the Citizen.

"They didn't say anything but they seemed very interested in it.

"I wanted them to see the state of the road and my father's predicament for themselves.

"Then they came back with a decision in our favour.

"It's a brilliant victory and the Citizen has done us proud.

"I know the magistrates are there to carry out justice, but I think the impact it had was really quite something."

Dennis Hague, senior engineer for Fylde Borough Council, commented: "We have to go along with the magistrates' decision.

"We will recommend we try to reach a solution which will solve the deficiencies the magistrates pointed out and there are a number of alternatives which we will be reporting back to committee with."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.