Access & Inclusion Issues

The following points are from the Stirling Area Access Panel and relate to aspects of access and inclusion in this Draft document.

General points

A.    5.3 Policy 1.3 The aims only reflects urban developments and not rural locations. It is also quite aspirational to have these blanket points for new developments.

1.3(a) should also include mobility device as well as walking, cycling and public transport.       

B.    5.4 Policy 3.3 Fails to recognise the lack of service which DRT offers in rural locations as:

-       Not a guaranteed service due to competing with other activities like school times

-       Vehicles may not be accessible at certain times of the day

-       It doesn’t afford the same opportunity for everybody

-       DRT doesn’t provide a whole journey, just to other transport (bus) routes

We can agree think that DRT has a role, but  a limited one, only useful for a very small percentage of the population living relatively close to reliable travel links.

C.    5.6 Use of the term “wheeling” is a corrupt and ambiguous term.

Wheeling as used by many public bodies makes it appear that the user of a wheelchair may be doing this for health benefits and exercise, whereas most manual wheelchair users use their chair of necessity to being mobile and to strive to be independent. In fact, most wheelchair users do not use a manual type of chair, the vast majority use a powered chair or scooter, therefore they are not actually “wheeling” as such, instead they are more likely to be pressing buttons.

The modern, colloquial slang use of the word “ wheeling “ has romantic and / or sexual connotations, which also make its use in the context of transport and travel ill-advised and rather undesirable.

A generic term covering everybody would be more acceptable and less of a focus on ableism.

D.    Rural Bus Transport is unreliable, expensive and cannot be relied upon since Covid in 2020 to commute to a job say in Stirling or Glasgow. There are no travel options other than using private cars or expensive, and the very few, private taxis which exist.

E.     Walking and Cycling is not viable in rural locations for everyday travel in order to commute to employment, shop, attend medical appointments, secondary, further, or higher education, etc., as these services don’t exist in all locations!

F.     5.23 -There are fewer local amenities available in rural villages, so it is essential that people have to travel circa 20 miles to larger shopping locations using safe and reliable travel.

G.    5.25 – We have no issue about Active Travel, particularly for leisure, but for the elderly and 20% of our population with disabilities, it is unrealistic for essential travel, e.g., employment, education, appointments, shopping, socialising etc.

H.    6.3 Establishing infrastructure required:

- Doesn’t include rural S.W. Stirling, it stays the same with its well-known health service issues

- No consideration is given for lengthy journeys to our two hospitals and the fact that multiple journeys are required if infrequent P.T. is chosen.

- We are denied specialist services

I.      7.5 Where are the open spaces for the recent student developments? They just don’t exist in Stirling City.

Another element which is missing is that under BS8300:2018, a provision of 5% of student accommodation should be made for adapted rooms for disabled students.

J.      9.0 Affordable Housing Provision – What is missing is comment about lifetime, modular and adapted homes to ensure that the 20% of the population with a disability are adequately catered for.