JustBeingCP

A year ago today (8th of May, 2024) I attended a royal garden party at Buckingham Palace in London that was hosted by King Charles III, his wife Queen Camilla, the Dukes and Duchesses of both Edinburgh and Gloucester along with Her Royal Highness, the Princess Royal.

As you will I am sure know by now I was nominated by the Department for Transport (DFT) to attend the party because of the work that I have done to get more dropped curbs on the pavement network across Herefordshire and in making the rail network more accessible to the disabled community across the midlands.

These passengers can travel from stations that either have high volumes of passenger assistance requests going through them or are classed as unstaffed stations. I think that it is fair to say that it wasn’t plain sailing in getting to the event.

A few weeks before I was due to attend the event the RMT (Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers) announced that industrial strike action would place across the rail network on the 7th, 8th and 9th of May that year.

The plan was for me to travel by rail to the capital on May the 8th in time for the start of the party at 4pm that afternoon, that didn’t happen of course.

ITV News Central spoke to me about the impact that the industrial action was going to have on me, I told there then reporter, Rosie Dowsing that the disruption is just upsetting for people with disabilities who struggle with there emotions because of the conditions that they have, it can cause untold upset and distress.

After weeks of uncertainty I made to the garden party at Buckingham Palace by car, tube and then a bus which stopped just outside the royal residence. It was an enjoyable experience despite the challenges that I faced in getting there.

Since then I have worked with West Midlands Trains (WMT) for the best part of the last 18 months to improve the assisted travel provision that they offer to those with disabilities travelling across the network that they manage.

Accessible waiting spaces that come in the form of blue and white boxes with a white wheelchair logo and the words ” for mobility assistance, please wait here” have been painted on station platform floors.

The 10 stations that now have the spaces are: The Hawthorns, Coventry Arena, Aston, Witton Lane, Worcester Foregate Street, Worcester Shrub Hill, Telford Central, Selly Oak, Lye and Kenilworth.

The accessibility of public transport for those with disabilities has been labelled a “national embarrassment” by the transport select committee who scrutinise the work of the Department for Transport.

If you would like to read my thoughts on that they can be found here: https://just-being-cp.co.uk/2025/03/20/i-have-faced-some-embarrassing-situations-when-using-public-transport-as-a-wheelchair-user/

If you travel by rail on a regular basis and need assistance to either board or disembark services, your assisted travel can be booked up to 2 hours before departure in one of three ways.

By Phone: 0800 024 8998 or by using Next Generation Text – 18001 0800 024 8998.

Online: https://booking.passengerassistance.com.

By using the App: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/passenger-assistance/id1542190496.

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I would like to thank the entire team at WMT (West Midlands Trains) who have worked incredibly hard behind the scenes to ensure that as many stations as possible that they manage have the waiting spaces.

The disabled community living in the areas where the spaces are located will now be able to travel with both confidence and of course ease, that is 100% down to you it hasn’t gone unnoticed and is of course very appreciated.

The (garden) party was hosted on the 79 anniversary of VE (victory in Europe) day, meaning that today we are celebrating the 80th anniversary of that momentous day for the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe.

All that is left for me to say before I end this post in the usual way is this ” Happy VE Day to all those celebrating across England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland, I hope you have an enjoyable day just like they did back in 1945 whatever you are doing”.

A thank you must also go to you, my loyal readers and social media followers who continually take the time out of your busy schedules to read my latest post as soon as it has been published this doesn’t go unnoticed and is of course very much appreciated.

Cam