Press releases Medway Today 23/01/2001

Disabled to test buildings' access

Access group seeks more volunteers for project

PEOPLE campaigning for better access for disabled people to public areas will put nearly 150 buildings in Medway to the test in the next two months.

Medway Council wants to survey all of its buildings, which are open to the public, by the end of March.

The Disability Discrimination Act states that by 2004, all physical obstructions to buildings have to be removed as far as is reasonable.

The 50 members of Medway Access Group have offered to help the authority do its job. But the group still wants more members and more volunteers so that its work can be done as thoroughly as possible.

Medway Access Group also wants to hear from any members of the public who have experienced difficulties in accessing council buildings.

Group chairman and wheelchair user Derek Lynch, 54, who is retired, said: "The list doesn't include housing, but it does include leisure facilities, libraries, swimming pools, public toilets - any buildings which are available to the public and owned by the council."

He said the group wasn't expecting any horror stories about buildings, although he added he is unable to reach the upper floor in Chatham Library, Riverside, and that he accesses Chatham High Street's Central Theatre from a side door. But he added: "There are success stories. The Municipal Buildings in Gillingham have recently been done and are very good."

Members of Medway Access Group are now planning how to try out the entire list of 144 council-owned buildings.

Vice-chairman Sue Hannant said that members would be assigned according to where people lived. She said: "Disabled people can be restricted and so the list will be divided according to the areas."

"We will be visiting all the buildings, looking at all types of accessibility, not just mobility and wheelchair access, but the facilities there for deaf and blind people, such as the use of coloured surfaces and whether lifts have sound."

Anyone who wants to tell Medway Access Group about their views on particular build ings, become a member, or volunteer to help with the survey, should contact Derek Lynch on 01634 361976.