DUNDEE ACCESS GROUP

MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 6TH DECEMBER 2018 IN THOMAS HERD HOUSE, WARD ROAD, DUNDEE

 

PRESENT:  Erik Cramb, Anne Farrow, Lillian Malcolm, Dorothy Wilson, Carole Craig, Tracey Clark, Heather Flood, Bill Varney, Sandy Cameron, Denise Cameron, Janette MacKay, Elana Hutchison.

APOLOGIES:  Denis Bethell, John Mitchell, Jan Goodall.    

1.     MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING:

 

The minutes of the meeting held on 1st November 2018 were approved.

                                                                      

2.       MATTERS ARISING:

 

2.1.          (Re minutes 5.5). The lift in T J Hughes is still not available to customers. It was suggested that Heather asked Graham to write to them saying that the Shopmobility customers needed access to their lift when shopping there.

 

2.2.          (Re minute 4.15).  Carole had no response from ASDA about Purple Tuesday.

 

3         OTHER AGENDA ITEMS:

 

3.1            Sandy reported that we had received another donation from St Katharine’s Fund and would write to thank them.

 

3.2            Tracey had attended many meetings this month which she told us about. These included Digital Support in the New Telecare System,  how the Health and Social Care Partnership will move forward with their aim to get people out of hospital and into care in the community, and ‘Streets for Everyone’ which highlighted Perth’s attempts to show ‘non-disabled’ the importance of having clutter-free pavements and dropped kerbs by temporarily giving them ‘disabilities’. She also told us of the difficulties being experienced by users of the new electric buses and she will get in touch with John Berry to keep him informed, and she told us about ‘Dundee Decides’ which was a survey of public opinion on how Dundee Council should spend money allocated to community projects.

 

3.3            Lillian told us she, along with people from the council and Councillors, had attended outings organised by the Northern Links Project to collect views of two proposed cycle routes, one from Lochee Road to the City Centre and the other from Dens Road to the Seagate. She was able to draw attention to the difficulties a wheelchair user would experience when travelling these routes.

 

4         CORRESPONDENCE:

 

By email

 

4.1             Disability Equality Scotland Newsletters.

 

One article in Issue 12 said that David Hunter, of the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland had asked the Scottish Parliament to ban parking on pavements.

 

4.2            The ALLIANCE Weekly Bulletins.

 

4.3            Inclusion Scotland E-bulletins.

 

4.4            On 1/11/18 DES sent a link for those of seeking improvements in their local railway stations.

 

4.5            On 1/11/18 from Caley McDowall, Principal Consultant, SYSTRA Ltd, re Dundee’s ‘Northern Links’ project which proposes to create three strategic cycle routes in the city and she would like a member of DAG to join a group on a proposed route.

 

4.6             On 6/11/18 from Euan’s Guide re their Access Survey.

 

4.7            On 12/11/18 from Dundee Council inviting members to a meeting where they will be collecting views on the Attendance Allowance.

 

4.8            On 15/11/18 from DES sending their ideas on restructuring the relationship between DES and Access panels along with a Code of Conduct for Access Panels.

 

We were relieved that on 22/11/18 another email came from DES retracting the email of the above, apologising that no consultation had taken place before it was issued and saying  it was not their intention to impose either the code of conduct or the regional forum model onto Access Panels and that they truly understood the value of each Access Panel and the amazing work of all volunteers involved.

 

4.9            On 16/11/18 from the Equality and Human Rights Commission sending their aims in a strategic plan along with a survey to collect public opinion.

 

4.10        On 20/11/18 from DES asking us to recommend venues in our area.

 

4.11        On 29/11/18 from DES sending their Newsletter Issue 12.

 

 

5         A.O.B.

 

5.1            Carole complained to the management of Fat Face that a wheelchair user could not get into their shop in St Andrews. They said they would act on her complaint.

 

5.2            Carole has visited 5A Bank Street at the request of the Council’s Planning department. The premises were to become a restaurant and they were concerned about the size of the proposed toilet. Carole said that the proposed toilet would not be large enough for a wheelchair user to use and that a wheelchair user would need a step-free entrance to the premises.

 

5.3            Michael Ross, Customer’s Relations Manager for LNER contacted Carole about the problems she had with train travel.  He has offered to accompany her and some of her family on a trip to London to see the difficulties for himself.

 

5.4            Tracey said that Dundee Council were going to do a review of parking in Dundee City Centre.

 

 

6     DATE OF NEXT MEETING.

 

The date of the next meeting is at 12.45 on Thursday 7th February 2019 in Thomas Herd House, 10 - 12 Ward Road, Dundee, DD1 1LX.

 

                  web: www.dundeeaccessgroup.co.uk

e-mail: dundeeaccessgroup.org@hotmail.co.uk