On 05/06/2019 08:43, Jim GM4DHJ ... wrote:
"Bert Coules" wrote in message
o.uk...
Steve Walker wrote:

I feel that in most cases, it would be better not to generally provide
level access, ramps and other disabled friendly items, but to give 100%
grants for specific changes needed in each home, as and when required -
even for houses where disabled people only visit occasionally - thus not
burdening people with unnecessary designs that they do not want, while
providing exactly what they need, if required.

A sensible approach. The level-access / ramp requirement is presumably a
result of the all too common attitude that "disabled" means "in a
wheelchair". This does seem to be changing now, with "Not all
disabilities are visible" signs beginning to appear in various places, but
as yet the change doesn't appear to have percolated through to the
building regs.


the requirement for the max gradient for ramps is very shallow

Which is actually one of the problems, as that means a very long ramp,
taking up much of a small garden or losing parking space.

and the
requirement for a landings every 2m and handrails makes them unnoticeable
and I think people are thinking about non-compliant ramps .......

We have a nice ramp in our local town centre, providing access to a bank.

The pavement is about 10' wide and instead of providing steps directly
out of the door, with a ramp running at 90° to them along the front of
the bank or putting the entire ramp inside the bank (there is plenty of
room), the entire pavement is ramped up and down. There is already a
slight slope to the road, due to it rising to cross a railway line. The
end result is that in winter, unless the pavement is gritted, many
elderly people have to go out of their way to avoid using this section
of pavement for fear of slipping and falling.

Even worse is that it was done on the grounds of equality. It was deemed
no longer reasonable to require people with disabilities to use the back
door of the bank, where there was already both a ramp and steps -
despite many able-bodied customers (myself included) preferring to use
the back door, as it had direct access from a car-park, while there was
no parking at the front!

SteveW