Clause on disability access voted down in Parliament

TSSA Interim General Secretary Frank Ward has slammed the Government’s failure to support a bid to increase accessibility at railway stations across England, saying it is subjecting disabled passengers to a “postcode lottery”.

Clause 66 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, if accepted, would have written into the Bill a legal requirement for the Secretary of State for Transport to take “all reasonable steps” to ensure railway stations in England met disability access standards.

The clause was proposed by former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, who argued that a “high number of non-main line stations have zero accessibility” which makes them unusable for those with mobility issues.

However, Conservative MP Lee Rowley argued the Bill was the ‘wrong vehicle’ for the matter, and the amendment was voted down at committee stage.