Disability Access News

Thursday, January 01, 2009, 15:00
Kent & Sussex Courier

THE TUNBRIDGE Wells Area Access Group is celebrating after one of its 10-year campaigns for accessible lifts has paid off and two more have moved a step closer.

Tunbridge Wells train station, on Mount Pleasant Road, will have a lift installed ready to be operational by the summer.

The Adult Education Centre, on Monson Road, and the town's library, museum and art gallery, on Civic Way, are likely to undergo work to make them more accessible.

Chairman of the access group Michael Coggles described the news as "a real Christmas present for everybody in Tunbridge Wells".

He added: "It is something we have all wanted and been campaigning for for 10 years."

Southeastern Trains said designs had been drawn up and the tender process to supply and install a suitable lift was currently under way.

It is expected to cost £200,000 and will utilise the existing lift shaft on platform two providing access to street level.

Mr Coggles said: "We are overjoyed we are getting the lift, not just for us but mothers with young children and the elderly. It will benefit everybody.

"At the moment a wheelchair-bound person would have go down a ramp and press a bell for staff to let you on to the platform.

"Disabled people here up to now, on a train from London, would have to get off at Tonbridge station – where they have a lift – and be driven to Tunbridge Wells by a vehicle provided by Southeastern.

"The lift will make everybody's lives easier."

A feasibility study is being carried out at the library for installing both the lift and disabled toilets, and Kent County Council has said investigations for the lift at the adult education centre were on-going.

Mr Coggles added: "New lifts in these important buildings will mean better facilities and a huge improvement for everybody.

"At the moment at the library you can only get to the ground floor. With a new lift the building will be available to everybody.

Portfolio holder for safer and stronger communities, Cllr James Scholes said: "We have been working on this project behind the scenes for a long time with Kent County Council.

"Improvements to enable more people to access to the museum, art gallery and library building were originally anticipated to form part of a larger redevelopment of the site, part-financed by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

"Unfortunately the bid for funding was unsuccessful. However, work to provide a lift and accessible toilets continues."