City Council Accessibility & Inclusion Task Group calls out to ‘bin the barriers’

Thursday, 11 May 2023 01:00

The recently formed City Council Accessibility & Inclusion Task Group [AITG], chaired by Cllr Lynne Blackwood, is out to ‘bin the barriers’ that obstruct paths and pavements across the city, making life difficult for wheelchair users and people other disability equipment, as well as parents with buggies.

The aim is to have them either removed altogether or, if they are deemed necessary for safety reasons, altered so that everyone can get through them while still preventing speeding bikes, and skateboards from presenting a danger.

A meeting of the Accessibility and Inclusion Task group on Tuesday (May 2) agreed to ask individual councillors to compile a list of barriers in their wards that cause problems for residents and collate them into one request for action across the City.

Cllr Blackwood’s wheelchair attempting to negotiate St Paul’s roundabout underpass barriers

The list will be submitted to Wiltshire Council for consideration and prioritisation by the local highway improvement group, with a request for action as and when finances allow.

Barriers in underpasses are outside the scope of this initiative and the responsibility of Highways. Action on these will be pushed forward by the SCC Underpasses Working Group.

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