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Dumfries and Galloway Council

Question: what vwould you give to help the disabled

Asked by buckfast to Ted, Sandra, Jane, Elaine, Alastair on 28 Sep 2010 in Categories: .

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  • Photo: Elaine MurrayElaine Murray answered on 24 Sep 2010:

    Are you a monk or an imbiber, buckfast? There are still problems with buildings not being accessible for disabled people, that needs to be tackled, and its often difficult for disabled people to find jobs, there needs to be more support for disabled people to help them get and stay in work.

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  • Photo: Ted BrownTed Brown answered on 26 Sep 2010:

    Dear buckfast, I do believe that we should all do what we can to enable those with disabilities to maintain their dignity and their independence. Much has been done in terms of legislation to promote that agenda via the 1995 and 2005 Disability Discrimination Acts and the Equality Act 2010 which come into force on the 1st of October this year.

    The following link will get you to a page that will give you more information about that. Please use your browser back button to get back to the Bigvote site if you do follow this link.

    http://www.equalities.gov.uk/equality_act_2010.aspx

    As a Councillor I have managed to get funds for more drop kerbs in my ward, so that those in wheelchairs and on mobility scooters can have easier access to places that they want to get to and in general I have fought against plans that might make it more difficult for folk to access toilets for the disabled .

    I did get a parking restriction introduced outside the disabled toilet near Lockerbie Station, as able bodied folk were regularly parking there and blocking access to it for anyone in a wheelchair.

    In common with many others, I was pleased to support Wyn Deamer’s 10 year long and eventually successful campaign for a disabled friendly passenger bridge at Lockerbie Station.

    I have and will continue to work with the Dumfries and Galloway coalition of disabled people, whenever they ask for my support.

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  • Photo: Sandra McDowallSandra McDowall answered on 26 Sep 2010:

    We already do a lot to help the disabled. We help fund a mobility scheme to give disabled people better access to our town centres. Most of our pavements have dropped kerbs and many have different colours and textures to warn of dangers. We have loop systems in all our customer centres and our public offices and libraries are very accessible. We also have a very inclusive school system with high levels of support for disability.

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  • Photo: Alastair WittsAlastair Witts answered on 27 Sep 2010:

    There’s been quite a lot done in recent years to help the disabled, but we can do more. What disabled people want is to get around like able-bodied people. To do this we can improve buses and taxis so they can get on them, make sure there are disabled parking spaces, and fine able-bodied people who use them, improve access to buildings, drop kerb pavements, etc.

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  • Photo: Jane MaitlandJane Maitland answered on 28 Sep 2010:

    This is a curious question. Do you mean personally, or the balance that might be needed between competing council budgets?

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