Blind need their say on town regeneration

Moves to regenerate Ayr town centre must not ‘ lock out blind and partially sighted people’ when improving public spaces, a charity says.

The plea comes after the announcement of a new £ 27m fund for a raft of infrastructure projects across Scotland last week.

The Accessible Ayr initiative aims to ‘ transform the accessibility of Ayr town centre for people on bike and foot as well as those with reduced mobility, through regenerating the High Street, Sandgate and River Street’.

But while welcoming the funding, the national sight loss charity RNIB Scotland is urging planners to consult with residents with mobility issues and avoid urban designs that have created significant problems elsewhere.

Among these are cycleways that separate pavements from bus- stops and crossings, and ‘ shared spaces’ where pavements are levelled and pedestrians and vehicles use the same surface.

Dr Catriona Burness, campaigns manager for RNIB Scotland, said: “While we welcome a greater emphasis on walking and cycling, we are concerned that certain new concepts in town planning might end up excluding some people altogether, and make walking outdoors more fraught and hazardous for those with a disability.

“The placing of cycle- lanes between pavements and roadsides is another potential worry.

Unless there are marked crossing points, this just creates an additional hurdle for blind or partially sighted pedestrians.

“Not only can they not see oncoming cyclists, they can’t hear them either.

“Meanwhile, cyclists are likely to assume that any pedestrian will be able to see them approaching.

“It’s vital that we retain pavements with a minimum 60mm kerb, and that controlled crossings and easy access to bus stops are all features that are included. Unless we rethink some aspects of town planning we could lock in flawed designs into our towns and cities for a generation - and lock out blind and partially sighted people.”