contact us

• 1300 994 890
• (03) 9001 5805

Campaigners calling for updates to the legislation governing mobility scooters, and better training for drivers have presented members of the Commons Transport Committee with a list of people killed or injured in scooter incidents. Norfolk Police explained that, under current laws, drivers of mobility scooters do not take a test and cannot be prosecuted, while Disability Essex told the committee that there was an extensive list of fatal or dangerous incidents involving drivers.

Supt Jim Smerdon from Norfolk Police said: ‘If a person is drunk in charge of a mobility scooter we use an act from 1872 I believe, “drunk in charge of a carriage,” which needs to be updated.’ Richard Boyd from Disability Essex told the committee: ‘One lady in Chelmsford fell off her scooter and was killed by it.’ He added: ‘Another lady in Clacton was taking her dog for a walk on the sea front, the dog pulled the scooter over and it fell on her and killed her. In Wickford, a blind gentleman drove across the road and was hit by a bus, and so it goes on.’

JOHANNESBURG – THE South African Disability Association (Sada) and the Fifa World Cup Local Organising Committee (LOC), yesterday met to discuss accessibility to stadiums during the World Cup for people with disabilities.

LOC CEO Danny Jordaan and Sada chairman Musi Nkosi, met at Safa House in Nasrec to discuss a means of accommodating the disabled community ahead of the world soccer tournament.

In a brief statement, Nkosi said the meeting held yesterday was to deter-mine a way forward and establish an agreement for working communication between the LOC and Sada.

“Within two days we meet again, to compromise with members of the LOC committee,” he said.

Jordaan said they had in December last year signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a working group which would report back on April 23.

“We plan to look at the facilities at the stadiums, whether it is compliant or non-compliant with space and placing for everyone,” said Jordaan.

“We are very happy, we had a productive meeting,” he said.

Jordaan added that representatives from Match ticket organisations and ticket verification would also meet to discuss each stadium and work with groups to further discuss matters concerning accessibility.

A wheelchair-bound woman was told to take a train for 30 miles in order to cross to an opposite platform 20 yards away.

Julie Cleary, 53, was hoping to use a new £2.8m lift at Staplehurst train station in Kent to get out of the station after a day trip to London, reports the Daily Telegraph. But she was told she could not use it because of “health and safety” and told to instead to catch a train to Ashford International Station, 15 miles away, and back so she would end up on the right platform.

Miss Cleary said: “The lights were on but there was a metal bar over the button. We couldn’t use it. We were told to wait for the next train to Ashford, cross the tracks and come back to get on the other side of the platform – which was 15 to 20 yards away. That was our only choice.”

Miss Cleary, who has been forced to use a wheelchair since suffering a spinal aneurysm when she was 12-years-old, said she was told the high-tech lift could only be used when the station was manned.

She told a local website: “I have family in the village, and they came down and helped get me up and over the steps and down the other side. My friends were brilliant, but it was still embarrassing simply not being able to leave the station.

“I did feel furious about it. If I was on my own I would have had no choice but to take the train to Ashford, which is a large and busy station, then change back on the train to Staplehurst.”

The winners of the 2009 Loo of the Year Awards were announced in December at the National Motorcycle Museum, near Birmingham. The annual competition, run by the British Toilet Association, seeks to highlight the best ‘away from home’ toilets in the UK. Over 1,500 entries were received, of which 58 per cent of the total entries achieved the top five star grading, compared with 42 per cent in 2008.

The UK Overall Winners Trophy was awarded to McDonald’s restaurants. The awards managing director Mike Bone commented: ‘The UK’s restaurant and hospitality sectors are placing significantly increasing importance on provision of first class toilets that contain the facilities their customers need and expect when visiting their premises. McDonald’s has continued to improve the quality of their customer toilets since winning National Awards in previous years.’

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has joined up with regional design review panels to create a national network of design review panels. The network will provide an independent practical design resource advice for local planning, and will review 800 schemes across England a year. While CABE has supported regional design panels since 2005, it hopes that this evelopment will ensure that the panels work collaboratively, and that a consistent service is provided to developers and planners throughout the country.

Each organisation which joins this network will commit to observe key principles of design review, such as consideration of the impact on those using a building or place and the public at large, as well as regularly sharing lessons from design review. The eight regional design panels that have affiliated to CABE are:

North East, run by Ignite
North West, run by Places Matter!
Yorkshire and Humber, run by Integreat Yorkshire
East of England, run by Inspire East
East Midlands, run by Opun
West Midlands, run by MADE
South East, run by Kent Architecture Centre
South West, run by Creating Excellence

For more information, visit the CABE website

Disability groups have expressed anger that the recently built Shepherd’s Bush underground station has no lift. The station, built to coincide with the opening of the Westfield shopping mall, opened in September 2008 and serves 70,000 passengers per week. The director of Hammersmith and Fulham Action for Disability (Hafad), Kamran Mallick, condemned the development. He said: ‘Stepfree access to the Underground is essential if the Tube network is to truly become a public service. Disabled people have the same rights as other commuters yet it is seen as acceptable to continue to allow barriers to this basic freedom.’

Transport for London (TfL) defended the decision not to install a lift, saying that while the lift itself would have cost £1 million, constructing the lift shafts could cost up to £100 million. A TfL spokeswoman said: ‘The project was put on hold after costs escalated significantly, due to the complex engineering challenges of the site. Subsequent to that, additional costs from the absorption of Metronet and the economic downturn have forced the indefinite deferral of a number of step-free access projects including Shepherd’s Bush.’

Hammersmith and Fulham councillor Nicholas Botterill pledged to continue the campaign for an accessible station, saying: ‘People with mobility impairments, including our disabled and elderly residents and mums with push chairs, are demanding access to Shepherds Bush Central line station and we will continue to lobby TfL hard on this.’

The Inclusive Fitness Initiative (IFI) has launched IFI Recognised Products. Fitness Equipment that meets the IFI Equipment Standards Stage 2 are awarded ‘IFI Accredited Item’ status, which is intended to provide the industry with an means of identifying exemplary products. The IFI hopes that this will enable fitness facilities to source and purchase inclusive fitness equipment.

The portfolio of IFI Recognised Products aims to help fitness facilities to improve their accessibility. Products that achieve a listing within the Recognised Products section of the IFI website will have to clearly demonstrate their suitability for both inclusion and the leisure environment. The IFI have developed criteria in collaboration with industry experts, disability organisations and disabled people to ensure that only the correct profile of products achieve a listing.

Christopher Forrest, IFI Recognised Products Coordinator said: ‘The levels of interest from suppliers, fitness facilities and disabled people has been huge, and we are developing the portfolio of products as quickly as possible to meet the generated demand.’

The portfolio of IFI Recognised Products will be available shortly through the IFI
Website
www.inclusivefitness.org.uk

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has lost an appeal against a landmark ruling that it failed to provide adequate access to its services. David Allen, 18, took legal action against RBS after it failed to provide wheelchair access at his local branch in Church Street, Sheffield. In January, the bank was ordered to install a platform lift and pay £6,500 damages. The estimated cost of installing the platform lift is £200,000. This was the first ruling of its kind and set a legal precedent which could have implications for other service providers.

On 20 November judges at the Court of Appeal dismissed the bank’s appeal against the ruling and ordered it to carry out the necessary access work. The bank told the Court of Appeal it had complied with the Disability Rights Commission’s Code of Practice and it had arranged access to three other branches. However, judges dismissed the appeal and ordered the bank to pay Mr Allen’s legal costs. Lord Justice Wall said Mr Allen could not access counter facilities at the bank and a duty ‘plainly thereby arose’ under the Disability Discrimination Act. The judge said the bank could have taken steps to provide access for those suffering from disabilities. He said: ‘The bank did not take those steps, giving as its reason not the disproportionate cost of carrying out the work, but simply the fact that it would lose the use of an interview room.’

After the judgment, Mr Allen, who had previously been forced to conduct banking business in the street, said: ‘I’m glad the bank finally had to apologise in court and acknowledge they treated me badly. They just failed to understand anything about the need for privacy and dignity.’

Following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), in October Southwark Council pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at the City of London Magistrates Court, after a fatal incident in the car park of Alexandra Palace in London. The incident occurred following a trip to an exhibition organised for people attending the Aylesbury Day Centre, which is run by the council. The group were boarding a welfare bus via a tail lift. One member, William Delaney, was using a motorised scooter, and while on the raised tail lift, his scooter came off the back and fell to the ground. He died from head injuries sustained in the fall.

The HSE investigation found that Mr Delaney’s scooter did not fit on the tail lift. As a result, the tailgate plates, a safety feature which would have prevented the mobility scooter from falling off, did not lock into position. There was no risk assessment or procedure covering the loading and unloading of people with motorised scooters. Service providers had been warned of similar risks involving wheelchairs by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency  (MHRA) in 2005, following a number of fatal accidents across the UK.

HSE’s investigating inspector Zameer Bhunnoo said: ‘A suitable risk assessment and safe procedure should have been drawn up. Southwark Council failed in its duty by exposing motorised scooter users to such obvious risks.’

The Children’s Minister, Delyth Morgan, has announced that acoustic testing will be a contractual requirement for all Building Schools for the Future (BSF) projects. The measure was initiated to ensure that no funding will be signed off for a BSF secondary school building project without a commitment to having the £6000 acoustic test.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) announced the requirement as part of a package of measures to improve acoustics in schools and ensure that all children, particularly those with hearing difficulties, have access to a learning environment which enables them to reach their full potential. It follows the Minimum Design Standard brought into the BSF programme to strengthen the design quality, which was announced in May. Under the Standard, all proposed designs for BSF sample schools are assessed by a schools design expert panel for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE).

Baroness Morgan said: ‘Good acoustics are essential to a successful learning environment for all children, particularly for those with special hearing requirements. To continue our drive for improvement, I am announcing a package of measures designed to ensure that school buildings have good acoustics and that the needs of those with special hearing requirements are met.
For further information, visit the DCSF website
www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2009_0191&CID=twitterPN191