Disabled access fair-go wanted

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 482, 20 April 1993, Page 1

Disabled access fair-go wanted

Raetihi resident Valmai Timmo wants local authorities to give her, and other disabled people, a fair go. Something as simple as attending the Country Women's Institute meetings held once a month at the Plunket Rooms in Seddon Street, is a nightmare for wheelchair-bound Ms Timmo who needs two helpers to manoeuvre her through a series of potentially hazardous "obstacles." While the public amenity is equipped with an adequate pushchair-cum-wheelchair access ramp, wheelchair bound users must still confront a maze of broken bricks, flower beds and an impossibly high top step. The problem is exemplified upon leaving the building.

Ms Timmo said a letter written by herself to the Raetihi Borough Council some years ago failed to bring about an end to the problem. Her views were endorsed by the then president of the CWI but this too, did not receive a response. Ruapehu District Mayor Garrick Workman fully concurred with suggestions that the local community board give serious consideration to improving access to public amenities, including installing wheelchair ramps onto footpaths in the township. "Anything the council can do to assist disabled people, we should", he said. Mr Workman said while the council was not unsympathetic about such problems in the past, there were always other projects of higher priority to consider.