to say did you see this story about the council building a 10 storey ramp for disabled access to a house?

[livelablove]

This is a mad one, what were they thinking? picture

I live in a house built in 2006 so it meets the upgraded access building regs for wheelchair users....

There is a step out the back door (not ramped) and steps in the back garden though I believe this is not covered by the building regs.

There are lowered light switches, highered plug sockets yet the house is physically not big enough for a wheelchair... I know because I was in one for awhile... I had to take off my kitchen door so to access the kitchen at all.

The stairs have two turns on them which are built in such a way that there is absolutely no way to have a lift

But the best was the ramp from the front door... I am told it met building regs but it was unguarded and a paving slab width from my front door was a drop of about half a metre. You couldn't safely turn a buggy on it never mind a chair and the lip on the door prevents entry to the house
We ended up putting a little fence round it after my son fell off it

Absolutely ridiculous that this house would be considered disabled friendly. The OT dealing with me said there had been cases that these newer houses have been turned down for adaptions because they met these building regs!! Thankfully I didn't need mobility support for long but had I needed it I was warned I would have hell of a fight proving that the house wasn't already suitable!

They won't even let them put a gate on it to try to prevent people from using it as a skateboard ramp.

A split-level lift would have been a better solution, and would have cost around the same.

My house is meant to be disabled access. I can't even get a Mac Major over the threshold without hurting myself, fuck knows how the last resident got the power hair over the wooden bit at the bottom of the doorway. My wet room is lovely...except it's NOT. I'm luckily not in a wheelchair YET (will be in the future, riddled with arthritis and am only 32, have the wet room due to epilepsy), but the doorway isn't wide enough to get a wheelchair through.

Plus there's the small fact that the shower itself has been broken since I moved in almost 8 months ago, and the HA's repair contractors don't seem able to organise a puss up in a brewery, let alone find the special part that they ordered 5 months ago that's SOMEWHERE in their warehouse...

Can't get a DFG here because I already have the wet room (despite the fact that it's not useable as a wet room).

I couldn't get a DFG in my last place either because they knew I'd have to move as the house was too small. Went 9 years there without a wet room too...despite having a room large enough, with the correct gradient to where the drain would be sited, just with no actual shower, with a large enough door to get a chair through.

No common sense at all.

apparently it cost £40.000 and they could have installed an outdoor lift for £10,000

Cant believe they werent offered a house move tbh, my friend was offered a fully adapted home despite the fact they already owned their own because it ass cheaper than the cost of renovating their existing house.

To spend 40k on a ramp is just ludicrous.

They were allegedly offered numerous more suitable homes but for whatever reason turned them down and insisted on the ramp.

Can't quite understand why they sold their story to the media

Ahh yes Mrs DV I forgot about my uber wide doors, external and internal...

Even upstairs ones which you couldn't get to if in a wheelchair!