Southampton aims to be UK's most accessible city by 2040
The council's looking at ways to make it easier for disabled people to get around
Southampton City Council has voted to go ahead with the Accessible Southampton strategy, which aims to turn Southampton into the easiest city for disabled people to get around in the UK by 2040.
It was originally brought to the overview and scrutiny management committee by Councillor Sarah Vaughn, who had led the enquiry, when this met last Thursday (9th June)
In that meeting, Cllr Vaughn said: “A disabled person should be able to go to a friends house and enter through their door. We as a city should make this a standard.”
The plan contains 24 recommendations, including getting all taxis to be wheelchair friendly, renovating public buildings to ensure disabled access, and employing an ‘access officer’ to lead the changes.
The committee decided that the plan would be brought to today’s cabinet meeting.
Mark Perny, scrutiny manager, who presented the enquiry to cabinet, read out the statement and made sure to include a quote from the report that read ‘accessibility is the key to inclusive cities.’
The Accessible Southampton plan was then voted in by Cabinet, which means in the coming months, the council will officially begin the strategy as a ‘forward plan’ and it can begin to make a difference in the city.
Leader of the council, Councillor Satvir Kaur, who chaired the Cabinet meeting said:
“As a new Labour administration, we are very keen that we have an inclusive city but we know in order to be truly inclusive we need to be truly accessible.
“We are very keen to go through these recommendations and see what we can do as a cabinet. I look forward to working with them through all 24 recommendations.”