New dropped curbs have been installed across Herefordshire and accessibility signage has started to be installed at a number of railway stations in the Midlands since the 9th of August 2023.
As you my readers and followers will know I have been working with the likes of Herefordshire Council, Balfour Beatty Living Places (BBLP) & West Midlands Trains (WMT) for a while now in an attempt to solve number of issues facing the disabled community across the county and beyond.
I first met with officials from WMT a few months after my 27th birthday at Witton Lane station near Birmingham, where I raised a number of concerns about what disabled football supporters and local residents with mobility issues and other disabilities faced when using the station.
This has led to the creation of accessibility signage for the platforms at Witton Lane and Aston stations with others around the Midlands region following suit in the future.
In June 2024 Herefordshire Council finally installed a number of dropped curbs across a couple of locations in the county following a meeting that I had in one of the problem areas with BBLP’s Head of Design and Project Management.
It’s important to note for those who might not be aware that this wasn’t the start of my journey to get more dropped curbs installed in the county on behalf of Herefordshire’s residents who may require the use of them.
The campaign actually started in the middle of 2018 when I realised that something needed to be done urgently about the state of our pavement network in the county so I decided to contact the local authority.
Unfortunately after sending a number of letters and emails I still wasn’t listened to so enlisted the support of Free Radio (now known as Hits Radio, West Midlands) and ITV News Central to help amplify my campaign.
ITV News Central visited Hereford’s Harrow Road and Plough Lane in January 2022 to see for themselves what it was really like travelling along the in 2 roads as a member of the disabled community using a wheelchair or mobility scooter to live independently.
The authority finally arranged to meet with me in February that year on Harrow Road so that together we could figure out the best situation to solve the issues that had been raised by ITV News Central the previous month.
I am pleased to share that thousands of pounds have been spend on installing the latest round of dropped curbs on Westfaling Street and Barrie Road in the city.
The next year, my 28th will be spent working with the team from West Midlands Trains (WMT) to ensure that the accessibility signage is installed at a number of unstaffed stations across our beautiful region and those stations are:
- Coventry Arena
- The Hawthorns
- Kenilworth
- University
- Northampton
- Telford
- Tile Hill
As I have mentioned previously, discussions remain ongoing at West Midlands Trains about whether the accessibility signage can be installed at Tile Hill after their health and safety team raised concerns about how narrow the platforms are.
Passengers using the waiting spaces on either platform could be put at risk when high speed trains are passing through the station because of how close they would be to the train.
Coventry Arena station that is situated not too far away from the Building Society Arena (CBS Arena) will hopefully be the next station to have the signage installed in the not too distant future.
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I would like to end by taking the opportunity to thank the incredible teams at Herefordshire Council, Balfour Beatty Living Places (BBLP) and West Midlands Trains (WMT) for there incredible work and effort to make the dropped curbs and accessibility signage a reality.
On a separate note I would like to as I always do at this point, thank you my incredible readers and followers for taking the time out of your busy schedules to read my latest post, it doesn’t go unnoticed and is very much appreciated.
Cam
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