New centre plan has access for disabled
By Jo Deeks on Thursday, 22nd August 2002.
PLANS for a new resource centre in Haverhill are expected to be given the go-ahead next year amid reassurances the building will be disabled-user friendly.
A new 3,000 sq ft centre is planned to house the Citizens Advice Bureau, Volunteer Centre and Haverhill Association of Voluntary Organisations, in a building earmarked to be sited next to the Haverhill Arts Centre in the High Street.
Initial plans only included a ground floor shopping centre but, when it was realised offices were also needed, a lift was added to the plans.
Former Town Mayor, Eric Bowman, who uses a wheelchair, said he was delighted with the latest addition and had been horrified when he first saw the plans without a lift.
He said he was a long-standing adviser at Haverhill CAB, but had never been inside its building because its offices were upstairs and there was no lift.
His plight has been highlighted at several CAB AGMs to show the unsuitable access and cramped conditions in which it and other voluntary groups are working.
He had written to St Edmundsbury Borough Council and pointed out it would be legally obliged to provide the same level of service to disabled people as non-disabled people when the third part of the Disability Discrimination Act took effect in 2004.
He said: "It would have been absurd to create this new centre without a lift and come 2004 it would be illegal. There are a lot of shops in the High Street that will have to put in ramps."
Mike Dawson, director of Environmental Health and Housing for St Edmundsbury, said the council was assessing all its buildings to ensure they would comply with the act and was advising other businesses to do the same.
He added: "This is a very exciting plan for Haverhill and we are working hard to make sure it will happen. There are still a lot of hurdles to get over and the major one will be how we can fund it.
"We have had one meeting with the developer, who is happy with our proposals and will be having another at the end of September. The cabinet meeting in July was very positive about supporting this in principle, now we have to work with the organisations and see how we can make it happen."
A new 3,000 sq ft centre is planned to house the Citizens Advice Bureau, Volunteer Centre and Haverhill Association of Voluntary Organisations, in a building earmarked to be sited next to the Haverhill Arts Centre in the High Street.
Initial plans only included a ground floor shopping centre but, when it was realised offices were also needed, a lift was added to the plans.
Former Town Mayor, Eric Bowman, who uses a wheelchair, said he was delighted with the latest addition and had been horrified when he first saw the plans without a lift.
He said he was a long-standing adviser at Haverhill CAB, but had never been inside its building because its offices were upstairs and there was no lift.
His plight has been highlighted at several CAB AGMs to show the unsuitable access and cramped conditions in which it and other voluntary groups are working.
He had written to St Edmundsbury Borough Council and pointed out it would be legally obliged to provide the same level of service to disabled people as non-disabled people when the third part of the Disability Discrimination Act took effect in 2004.
He said: "It would have been absurd to create this new centre without a lift and come 2004 it would be illegal. There are a lot of shops in the High Street that will have to put in ramps."
Mike Dawson, director of Environmental Health and Housing for St Edmundsbury, said the council was assessing all its buildings to ensure they would comply with the act and was advising other businesses to do the same.
He added: "This is a very exciting plan for Haverhill and we are working hard to make sure it will happen. There are still a lot of hurdles to get over and the major one will be how we can fund it.
"We have had one meeting with the developer, who is happy with our proposals and will be having another at the end of September. The cabinet meeting in July was very positive about supporting this in principle, now we have to work with the organisations and see how we can make it happen."
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