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ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » I've spent the first half of this week attending the Northern Rock judicial review at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. I don't intend to comment on any aspect of the case here. However, as a speaker myself, it's been a pleasure to witness first hand the very impressive, often humorous, oratory skills of Lord David Pannick, Michael Beloff QC and Thomas de la Mare who were submitting what appeared, to me, to be a very convincing case for the institutional and small shareholder claimants to get fair compensation for the Government taking their shares when Northern Rock was nationalised in February last year. The case continues, as they say!
With my accessibility specialist hat on, I thought it would be appropriate to review the visit from a different perspective, having been to not only the Royal Courts of Justice, but also the Houses of Parliament, where on Monday afternoon, shareholders and supporters lobbied North East MPs, who were urged to support their constituents who are shareholders and lost out by the Government's action to nationalise Northern Rock.
The journey for me began at Callerton Parkway Metro station at about 6.45 on Monday. Fortunately, for me, as a manual wheelchair user, I'm not affected by the current ban on scooter users, and I find the Metro relatively user friendly. The big fear is always a lift of order, but not on this occasion, as I arrived at the Central in plenty of time to catch the 7.40, along with others heading down to London to support the claimants.
I was greeted with the news that the train was cancelled, but the problem was resolved as we joined the 7.52 and I was able to take up the same wheelchair seating position I'd reserved on the 7.40.
I take my hat off to GNER, and now National Express, for their efforts in accommodating wheelchair users. On at least one carriage, two sets of four seats have been removed to provide space for a reasonable size wheelchair and its user 'staying on board'. I've always found station personnel very helpful and courteous, without being patronising, which is often the case elsewhere.
No problems on this occasion either, as they pushed me up the portable ramp and I settled into my space on a pretty full train as a result of the earlier cancellation.
We were joined by reporters and film crew from the BBC and Tyne Tees, and soon after departing, I was interviewed by Gerry Foley for the 6 o'clock news.
Good on-board service was also provided by the train staff as they served up a cup of tea and a bacon sarnie, only available to others visiting the buffet car.
The accessible carriages also have a pretty reasonable wheelchair accessible loo, with an automatic door, grab rails, etc. But beware of the locking mechanism, as if you don't lock the doors properly, another passenger may open the auto doors from the outside and your bits will be on display for all to see as the door opens widely.
Jumping ahead a few hours after touring around London on an old unsuitably accessible London Routemaster bus, we arrived at the Houses of Parliament to meet the MPs. For a listed building, they'd made a decent effort in providing appropriate wide doors, ramps, platform and stair lifts as well as thankfully an accessible loo, which I was desperate to use after journeying on the Routemaster for a couple of hours.
The short trip to where we were staying was accomplished in a good old London Black cab. Thanks to Mr Livingstone, I presume, all have ramps, space for a wheelchair user to travel in the chair and, usually, a courteous driver willing to help. Someone was telling me that the cabbies are coming round to recognising the value of offering this service, which gives them competitive advantage over the growing number of inaccessible minicabs now on the roads. With the advent of SATNAV, the "Knowledge" is no longer as vital as it used to be.
Methinks there's a lesson to be learnt here from a service provider being accessible.
We were all staying at the Union Jack Club near Waterloo Station. On arrival, I was delighted to not only see a wheelchair stair lift at the foot of the 20 steps, but also signage and a buzzer, the communication aid I'm advocating to be made mandatory in my e-petition to the Government http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/answer4access/ (please sign and support me). Within a minute or so, a member of staff came down to assist and very soon I was entering the wide automatic doors and checking in, where I noticed they also had a hearing induction loop.
Although not overflowing with accessibility, the Union Jack Club had made sufficient effort in my opinion to become accessible and the staff was always very helpful.
Finally to the Royal Courts of Justice and their accessibility...
Yes, there was a sign and a buzzer with intercom, although when the member of staff arrived, there was a lengthy "push" to the wheelchair accessible entrance nearest to the court where the case was being heard.
I had no problem accessing the courtroom and there were accessible toilets nearby, but there's a lot more worked needed in the building for it to be much more accessible. But who's going to make a DDA claim in the small claims court against almost the highest court in the land?
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