Our main project at the moment is improving access at Waverley Station, which is probably the most inaccessible station in Scotland because of its’ configuration and sheer utilisation and because of recent measures to improve security. We’ve had meetings with our MSP who is also convener of the government’s committee that’s been running an investigation into access issues at all of Scotland’s mainline stations.
We’ve been involved in Edinburgh Council’s proposal to run a trial which will allow certain types of mobility scooters on Edinburgh’s trams. We’ve been having discussions with the Council’s Transport Management about the issues and about the details of the forthcoming trial.
We’ve had further discussions with Edinburgh Council about their proposals to roll out shared space and the likely impact on disabled people.
We’ve become members of the newly-launched Equality and Rights Network (EaRN), which aims to combat inequalities and discrimination of all types in the Edinburgh area. Any organisations that support vulnerable groups in Edinburgh are invited to become members and to work together to make sure there are no gaps or inconsistencies in our support. The above items are in addition to our regular flow of planning applications which we assess for accessibility. We’ve been working on a particularly controversial application for a new housing scheme. This has involved detailed face-to-face discussions with the architect.
We’ve also amended our constitution. Previously, the constitution said we would aim to improve access to buildings, streetscape and transport. We’ve now added “services” and will be looking for opportunities to target shops, banks, customer service desks etc in a drive to improve social inclusivity in the broadest sense.
