CAMPAIGNERS say that there has been significant progress in efforts to make Wells more accessible for people with disabilities.
The first Task & Finish group meeting between members of the Accessible Wells campaign group, Somerset Council and Wells City Council took place on December 12 in Wells Town Hall. As a result, a plan of action is now going to be drawn up to rectify some of the deficiencies highlighted in the 2023 Proper Pavements for Wells survey and subsequent surveys.
The meeting was co-chaired by Mike O’Dowd-Jones, Somerset Council’s Service Director for Infrastructure and Transport, and Theo van Hensbergen, Chair of Accessible Wells.
Theo van Hensbergen told the meeting that there are moral and legal imperatives for making improvements, and said: “As able-bodied people we often simply cannot see, or we step over, the problems that face disabled people.
“We are jointly determined to work together to make improvements and we have an opportunity to make Wells an exemplar of how to successfully tackle inclusivity.”
Discussions covered a wide range of issues including missing drop kerbs, broken pavements and trip hazards, A-frame advertising boards and cafe street furniture, and disabled parking.
A second meeting of the Task & Finish Group has been scheduled for February 2025, when Mike O’Dowd-Jones will present a plan of action, with timescales. He said: “My team and I really welcome the fact that we are now working with Wells City Council and Accessible Wells as colleagues, to support the vision to make Wells much more inclusive for disabled people.
“We will return in February with a three-phase plan for those things that we can do in the short term to address the very worst problems, the medium term to further improve matters through our ongoing infrastructure maintenance and improvement programmes, and those longer term more complex changes that are best discussed through wider dialogue with the city council and communities.”
Following the meeting, Dick Hodgson, who has to use a wheelchair to get around Wells, led the Somerset Council delegates on a tour of the city to highlight some of the worst barriers to accessibility. He said: “I was very pleased with the way the day went and I am now much more hopeful things will improve. Getting around Wells easily is a reality of life for able-bodied people and until my wheelchair arrived I had never really considered it. It is only when you take a ride in my chair you start to see how difficult my lived in experience is – and so much of it can easily be fixed.”