Care worker hits out at town accessibility

Monday 05 November 2018

A care worker who provides support and respite care to islanders with a variety of special needs has hit out at town’s accessibility, after she found that a disabled parking space was obstructed by bollards, meaning wheelchair users cannot get onto the pavement from their vehicle.

Vicky Soar, Service Manager for New Horizons - a social enterprise that works to bring independence to people with physical, developmental or social impairments - took to social media to express her outrage at the badly planned parking bay.

Her post read: “Why would a pole be directly behind a disabled space[?] If I parked the other way around we would be getting into the road.”

The picture shows that once the ramp has been extended, there is no space for the wheelchair as the pavement is obstructed by two bollards. 

Pictured: The disabled bay obstruction that Vicky Soar took to social media about (Facebook/Vicky Soar).

Vicky came across this particular obstruction whilst out in town with one of her clients. She told Express: “I came across the obstruction after driving round town for 40 minutes looking for a disabled parking space suitable for wheelchair access. Most of the spaces are parallel parking which does not give enough space to get the ramp down and the wheelchair out so we had been looking for a while.”

However, once Vicky and her client eventually found a space opposite the Weighbridge, she said she was “baffled” that bollards had been placed between the space and the pavement.

This follows the publication of the latest Disability Strategy for Jersey progress report for this year which says that a review of the quantity, locations and sizes of disabled parking spaces across the island is underway and will be completed in 2020.

Pictured: Jersey's five priorities for improving quality of life for disabled islanders, as outlined in the Jersey Disability Strategy 2017.

Some users on social media responded to Vicky’s post making the point that the bollards are there to separate cars from pavement. To this, Vicky says: “I can understand that a separation between pavement and road needs to be clear, but those bollards could have been placed further back to allow access. If I’d parked the other way we would have been exiting the vehicle into the middle of the road which was unsafe.”

Vicky also made the point that anyone who stores their zimmer frames or wheelchairs in the car boot would not be able to use this space as there is not enough room for them to retrieve this equipment from their cars.

Vicky explained that this obstruction is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the lack accessibility in town. 

Pictured: As a care worker, Vicky has expressed her dissatisfaction with accessibility in St. Helier, saying that it prevents disabled islanders from going into town.

She said: “There are lots of barriers to people with disabilities accessing areas in town. For example, the pavements do not have enough lowered kerbs for a wheelchair to get off and onto the pavement easily - this is all around town. We went into the lift in de Gruchy and realised that a wheelchair user could not reach the buttons in the lift. Scaffolding and cars being parked on the pavement causes massive problems and often people will simply not go into town due to these barriers.

“I feel Jersey is disabling people from accessing all areas by putting unnecessary barriers in the way - it simply has not been thought through. I feel by consulting people who struggle with these barriers daily, things could be worked on to improve access and enable people."

Obstructions to accessibility like this one can now be reported on the LoveJersey app as part of the island's Disability Strategy.