Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Still so much work to do to provide access for all
This week the Western Daily Press is supporting International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which takes place on Sunday. Here David Redgewell, a trustee of Bristol Disability Equalities Forum, describes some of the issues faced
TRAVELLING around the Bristol region is still very difficult for all people with disabilities, hidden and otherwise.
With the 2010 Equalities Act life should be easier but it is not. We still have agencies and organisations that do not factor equality into their plans, such as Bristol City Council being stopped from making Kingsweston Bridge fully accessible because Heritage England refused to allow ramps to be built because it affects the Kingsweston House Estate setting.
Meanwhile, we still have pavement parking because the Government will not pass an act of Parliament to stop it.
This makes life very difficult for wheelchair users but also particularly for blind and partially sighted people.
In Bristol and Bath and across Somerset and Gloucestershire we have a lot of cobbled streets.
These can make it very difficult for disabled people to travel over. And then there are many shops in Georgian and Victorian buildings in Bristol, Bath, Kingswood, Gloucester, Cheltenham and Weston-supermare and Clevedon, with no ramp access or lifts.
Getting about on rail also presents problems.
Bristol’s Lawrence Hill and Stapleton Road stations have inaccessible platforms and bridges, as do Parson Street, Nalisea and Backwell and Pilning.
Elsewhere, Weston-super-Mare has no station lift.
There is some good news, however, as Weca Mayor Dan Norris has announced that all new metro west lines and stations at Ashley Down, Filton North Henbury for Cribbs Causeway, Charfield, Ashton Gate, Pill and Portishead will be fully accessible.
On the buses the network is fully accessible but the older buses only have one wheelchair space, so going out as a couple in a wheelchair is very difficult.
The lack of talking buses for blind and partially sighted people is also a problem, although the Government has passed new regulations to enforce this in two years’ time.
National Express coaches, Megabus Scottish City link, and Flixbus coaches are fully accessible.
The coach facilities for passengers
with reduced mobility are very basic in Bond Street.
Bristol needs a fully accessible coach station and improvements to Bristol bus and coach station and Bath Spa bus and coach station interchange with railway services.
Tourist coaches do not carry any wheelchair space and operators are fighting Government regulations ensuring they provide access.
On the positive side Bristol Disability Equalities Forum, with support from the city council, has been working on new local plan to make the region fully accessible over the next 20 years and especially accessible housing.
Policies are now being drawn up to provide fully accessible public toilets and changing places,
Hackney taxis in the region are becoming fully accessible slowly but not private hire cars in any number at present.
At Bristol Disability Equalities Forum and South Gloucestershire Disability Equalities Network we will continue to lobby for change with our colleagues in Somerset and Gloucestershire.