A wheelchair user is renewing her campaign for buses along Madeira Drive to help make the Kemp Town beach more accessible now there will be no lift for at least two summers.
Lina Talbot first made the request in September last year, when she was told the cost meant it’s unlikely either the council or the bus company would run buses there.
But now the Madeira Lift is out of action for several years, with a new lift not due to start operating until at least 2025, she’s restarted her petition, and got it online too.
It calls on Brighton and Hove City Council and bus service providers to consider diverting existing bus routes to help improve access to the beach.
With the lift out of action, those who cannot descend the steps otherwise face a long detour via Duke’s Mound or the Palace Pier.
Ms Talbot’s previous paper petition reached 100 signatures in four hours in June 2022.
The 71-year-old Kemp Town resident said: “The demand seems to be obvious. Everyone is concerned that there is no access, and many are actually horrified and angry.
“It’s not just residents; it’s visitors to the city as well that are expecting that kind of access, but can’t get down.
“I also ran a sort of questionnaire down on the boardwalk about why people have come down and how they got there.
“Most of them were local and had driven and parked either on Marine Parade or at the Marina and anyone who had any mobility problem, they had to come by car.
“This is absolutely not what the council is trying to promote.
“I think us oldies are being excluded from a lot of debates and discussions.
“I took a photo of the Kemp Town beach in the beautiful sun that we had on Monday and there are no old people in it. It was all young people walking along because the old people couldn’t get down there.
“I would like to actually join in any discussion with the bus company, because I think we can do this diversion of the bus, the 52 or 47.”
The petition says that a small diversion is both “affordable and practicable.”
It states: “We ask to take part in discussions regarding this between members of the council’s Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee and our bus service providers.”
The online petition runs until Monday, 19 June and will be presented to the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee the next day.
A new lift is due to be built as part of wider restoration work to Madeira Terrace but is not expected to be running until 2025.
The Madeira Lift itself will now not be restored until a future phase of the terrace restoration.
If you want to sign* the paper version, *with your address or e mail address, of the petition and put a poster up, get permission first. Please contact Lina on FB. Otherwise its on the Council Website. Search for e petitions. N.B. You have to register to sign.
If you want to sign you have to make a second account to do the Petition as that part is different to the part dealing with council tax & those things… You might think it’s made a bit harder so less people try to make their voices heard!?