WATCH: Video shows difficulty reality for disabled residents trying to access Peterborough shopping centre as councillors launch campaign to improve accessibility
Councillors Nicola Jenkins and Richard Strangward are pushing for greater accessibility in Bretton.
Two ward councillors in Peterborough have launched a campaign to improve accessibility in their ward.
A new video, produced by Bretton ward councillors Nicola Jenkins and Richard Strangward, shows the reality of disabled residents and residents who need to use a mobility aid simply trying to access the Bretton Centre.
The video shows the dangers of navigating, uneven paths, overhanging bushes, obstacles left on paths and barriers on what should be a simple journey from Tyesdale to the Bretton Centre.
The video can be viewed within this story.
Speaking about the accessibility challenges in the area and the aims of the campaign, Cllr Strangward said: “We have a high proportion of older people and people with mobility issues in the area and its become obvious that the area has not been planned particularly well, in particular in relation to drop curbs and those we’ve got, we have people parking over them.
“There are bushes as well that overhang paths in the growing season and its forcing people to take alternative routes then we see people being left out. Even when the bins are out, it can make it impossible for some people to navigate.
"We are trying to look at things through the eyes of people who are using mobility scooters and other mobility aids, even people with push chairs and we’ve come a lot of paths that we take for granted that prove to be quite dangerous for some.
“One key example is on the cycle way leading to Bretton Centre, where we learnt that several people have actually been thrown out of their scooters because of how uneven it is.
“We’re looking to identify as many of these areas as possible and see what we can do about it; do we need to speak to enforcement about people blocking dropped kerb, do we need to educate people about where they should and shouldn’t place their bins, there’s a whole big piece of work that can be done to improve disability access.
“Making the video was very eye-opening. It was surprising to see Sue’s typical journey to get to Bretton centre, she could easily go straight across the road and go down the cycleway but she has to stop halfway down and literally divert round the houses because she can’t get through the barriers.”