Romsey’s MP, Sandra Gidley, has “seen” for herself how modern street design can put the blind and visually impaired at risk.

Mrs Gidley has written to Test Valley Borough Council in a bid to stop “shared street surfaces” which, she believes, pose a severe danger.

Up and down the country, many councils are removing “artificial barriers” such as guardrails or even kerbs.

Mrs Gidley, who is chairman of the cross-party Parliamentary Group on Eye Health and Visual Impairment, donned a blindfold in London to see how difficult it would be for someone who is blind to navigate safely without kerbs.

She said: “Guide-dog owners and long-cane users are trained to use kerbs as a way to navigate. To remove them would only put the blind and partially-sighted at risk, undermine their confidence and create a barrier to their independent mobility.

“The kerb is also vital for children’s safety when using roads. From an early age, children are taught, as part of the Green Cross Code, to ‘Stop, Look, and Listen’ at kerbs. I hope the borough council will not follow this latest fashion in planning and stick up for our blind or partially-sighted residents in the Test Valley.”

The MP described the experience of walking with a blindfold as “really scary” .