Minutes:
“Since my accident my eyes have been opened to all manner of areas Welwyn Hatfield Council fails to consider the needs of disabled people.
Skips placed in disabled parking areas in Council car parks, a lack of disabled friendly electric charge points, and to my frustration but certainly not my surprise - the removal of ALL disabled parking at the Highview shopping area while the building works are taking place.
Does the Leader agree with me that Welwyn Hatfield Council is failing in its duty to consider Disabled people in Welwyn Hatfield?”
Answer
“Thank you Councillor Hayes for your question.
Firstly, let me assure you that this Council and I take our duty to people with disabilities seriously.
I do not agree that the Council is failing in its duty to consider disabled people within Welwyn Hatfield.
The Common car park was designed in accordance with National Parking Standards and there was no specific guidance at the time for the requirement to install accessible charging points. The car park was also subject to public engagement and planning consultation, and we were not aware of any comments made about disabled electric charge points.
The government are working with disability charities to set standards for electric vehicle charge points and that guidance will be made available on how to make individual charge points more accessible.
We understand that the charity has now undertaken user engagement and are developing prototypes for testing with disabled people this summer. Once the guidance is released, we will be considering this for the Common car park, the Campus West decked car park, and the wider EV charging point scheme.
In relation to High View whilst a bay and accessible route were in place from the new car park in phase one of the development, it was recognised that the bay in the new car park was a lengthy distance from the existing parade, and last week, we were able to install an alternative disabled bay much closer to the parade.
The council continues to work closely with AccessAble to ensure information is available to residents on the accessibility of our town centres and businesses. Following the launch of the Welwyn Garden City access guide, we are now working with them on Hatfield Town Centre and other buildings.
We have made changes to our website to ensure its accessibility, and our accessibility score improved significantly in January following a project to change our hosting provider to improve accessibility. Our new digital platform, Jadu, was also selected with the accessibility of residents in mind.
However, I do appreciate your views where you consider improvements could be made and I would be more than happy in future if you could bring any concerns to me or portfolio holders when they arise.”
In a supplementary question, Councillor Hayes stated that the public sector equality duty only has three aims, these were 1.) to eliminate unlawful discrimination, 2.) advance equality of opportunity 3.) foster good relations. Of the three aims, the Council was failing on the last two of the aims. Did the Leader read the quick start guide on the public sector equality duty before considering the original answer?
Councillor Kingsbury stated that having sat on the Equalities Group at Council, he was aware of the aspects of the act and the requirements. Councillor Kingsbury stated that if there were any specific points to be raised, he was happy to take them away and look into them. The Council takes equalities and disabilities seriously.