IT looks like Watford Council has seen the light after elected Mayor Dorothy Thornhill walked blindfolded through the High Street.

After her experience, as part of disability week, Mayor Thornhill has vowed to improve the lot of the visually impaired, whose needs in getting around the town centre have been ignored by the council for at least the past ten years.

Mayor Thornhill carried out the walk with different types of glasses and a blind-fold, simulating various sight problems and stages of blindness to find out what it was like getting around the town centre.

During the walk she encountered a tree and CCTV camera in the middle of a walkway, stumbled around A-boards put out by shops and restaurants, and bumped into one of the concrete balls in the centre of the high street.

When proposals for the town centre were drawn up the voice of the visually impaired went unheard, as the council went ahead without consulting disability groups, which is in contravention of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

After her experience, Mayor Thornhill said the concrete balls should be removed and the council would work with businesses to remove advertising boards from the pavement.

Mayor Thornhill said: "A trip to Alton Towers is nothing compared to walking a guide dog down Watford high street.

"I would love to get rid of the concrete balls that appeared from nowhere, and the street furniture that caused me so much grief.

"The whole experience was really quite stressful although I knew they weren't going to let me hurt myself.

"I am really going to have to appeal to the bars and shopkeepers about the advertising boards.

"If everyone gets rid of them, they will be on a level playing field. The last thing I want to do is send enforcement officers round, but we will do it."

The council now plans to make an assessment from the top of the high street to the bottom to decide the fate of unnecessary street furniture.