Disability campaigners fear that closing a popular shopping street to everyone except pedestrians and cyclists will act as a “curfew” on disabled people.
Two disability groups – Possability People and Brighton Access for Disabled Groups Everywhere (BADGE) – have criticised the proposal to close Gardner Street to all traffic except bicycles from 11am to 7pm Monday to Friday. This would extend the current weekend closures.
The proposal to extend the closures to weekdays is due to go before the council’s Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee next Tuesday (20 September).
The scheme includes removing blue badge parking bays from Gardner Street and creating more in neighbouring Regent Street.
Possability People’s chief officer Geraldine Des Moulins is due to lead a deputation to the Brighton and Hove City Council committee.
She is scheduled to speak on behalf of Possability People and BADGE before councillors decide whether to make the changes.
She is expected to say: “Gardner Street is a residential area and this closure would be imposing a curfew on disabled people, imprisoning them in their own homes between the hours of 11am and 7pm, preventing them from being able to attend essential health appointments or leave the area for any reason which will compromise their health and wellbeing.
“We contend that is a human rights issue and a safeguarding risk which hasn’t been addressed or even mentioned in the ‘equalities impact assessment’.
“However, the inadequate ‘equalities impact assessment’ being presented to the committee states that the only group with protected characteristics that are being disproportionately disadvantaged are disabled people.
“The only mitigation offered is that additional blue badge bays are placed in nearby Regent Street.
“However, it needs to be acknowledged that blue badge holders are already permitted to park for a limited period so this ‘mitigation’ does nothing to compensate for taking away the current bays.
“A further issue that has not been addressed is the distance from Regent Street to Gardner Street.
“People qualifying for a blue badge may not be able to walk or, if they can, for only very short distances.
“The ‘mitigation’ means to access the street blue badge holders would have to walk at least 150 metres to 200 metres or more and that is just one way.
“No individual who is in receipt of a mobility component can walk more than 200 metres. We contend this is not a mitigation but discriminates against 13,500 residents who are blue badge holders.”
The “equalities impact assessment” forms part of the report going before the committee.
It said that disabled parking bays are used 23 hours a day except when the road is closed at weekends.
The assessment said: “The loss of disabled parking bays in Gardner Street will hinder access to the street for blue badge holders.
“Disabled residents have stated that they will be unable to leave home without direct access to a disabled parking bay.”
The report said that removing the bays would restrict access to Gardner Street for blue badge holders who could not travel more than 50 metres.
If councillors decide to keep Gardner Street closures to weekends only, officers have advised that they approve seven extra disabled spaces planned for Regent Street anyway.
This would entail removing double yellow lines and marking disabled bays to make it an offence for delivery drivers to load and unload in the spaces.
The council’s Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee is due to meet at Brighton Town Hall at 4pm on Tuesday (20 September). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
In sorry, but for BHCC, the disabled come a poor second behind rolling out our Green dogma. We suggest you move elsewhere
A quick look at crashmap data shows there has not been a single pedestrian/ bike or car accident in the last 10 years – it’s a safe street, so not allowing the two blue badge bays too remain seems discriminatory.
Anyone who has walked Gardner Street will find it odd why it has not been pedestrianised already.
Has the council considered the same cameras as the bus gates but on timers? If drivers respected rules we could easily keep access for the disabled space but without enforcement that would be useless.
I am a disability PA and am shocked at how un-inclusive Brighton and Hove council is being. My concern is is for the disabled people living on Gardner street and the fact they will be effectively trapped in their houses, not to mention the people who will be excluded from enjoying Gardner street. If disabled people cant be included then I don’t want to be in these spaces as an abled bodied cyclist. Brighton should be for all!
So disabled resident’s aren’t able to get to medical appointments when they need to (while other residents are ok getting there) how does this fit with council’s wellbeing policy it keeps saying is so important. It is not good for disabled people living nearby either and definitely not good for Blue Badge users like myself who can currently get along Gardner Street and be parked outside a cafe, do shopping or be with pals (which I’ll no longer be able to do if this goes through) – sorry real foods, perfume shop sorry fabric fair where I have been shopping for years, but the council want to spoil the party. Awful.
Brighton is already a very inaccessible city. The council seems to have limited understanding of its legal duties to disabled people. So these plans to thoughtlessly stop disabled residents and visitors from accessing a very popular part of the town centre are not surprising. Knowingly trapping disabled people in their homes, however, is a horrifying new low. This is a scandal and if the council don’t see sense soon then it’s likely to become a national scandal.
And so, piece by piece, a residential street becomes a commercial street.
So how do residents with blue badges get to medical appointments or see their friends when they can’t get down the road? have the council no idea? Its not nice being stuck in your home, as we all found out in lockdown..have the council forgotten already?
No one has ever been nocked of a car or bike in the street. It’s not busy in the week anyway so why not just leave it alone and stop annoying people and wasting money.
Stop making everyone’s life harder and spend that money on resurfacing the roads.
Just seems like they are trying to justify their jobs at BHCC traffic planning.
Can this news paper do a freedom of information request on how many £s are wasted on traffic scheme consultants since the last election and if any of these companies have board members related to council officials
Gardner Street is not only a commercial street – people live there, and if you close off access to cars for the majority of the daytime (11am – 7pm), you are imprisoning in their home anyone who needs a car to get out and about. This may be an elderly person or a disabled person with reduced mobility, for example. This isn’t okay. If Brighton and hove is aiming to be an inclusive city, then this proposal possibly fit in with that aim. Proper consultation needs to take place with the people who will be affected by changes such as this, and their views need to be listed to.
The focus on blue badges also totally overlooks the fact that disabled people rely on people with cars visiting them that don’t have blue badges! What about a friend or family member picking them up? A taxi? Having someone with equipment such come to visit them that can’t lug it down the street? Things that help them be part of the community that able-bodied people take for granted. Yes it is shocking that they will not be able to get out to medical appointments but it’s also about the ability to do things beyond their own health care. The stuff that makes them human, makes them part of the community. There is no point being a greener city if we are discriminating against people in the process.