A carer with a buggy, a blind or partially sighted child, a teenager who has difficulty processing everyday sensory information, and a mobility scooter user, all use our pavements to access our shops, services and businesses. All residents should be able to move unhindered along our streets, without having to negotiate unnecessary pavement obstructions, such as pavement advertising. Unhindered access for all our residents will encourage more use of our shops and services and invigorate our town centres, benefitting businesses.
Residents look to us as a Council to change policies, procedures and practices that are discriminatory, and to take reasonable steps to enable disabled people and others with protected characteristics to avoid substantial disadvantages caused by physical features.
Under the Public Sector Equality Duty, public authorities are required to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination. Not taking action on street obstructions may also breach the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of Persons with a Disability.
It is not an option to leave things as they are, which is a one page guidance document for traders that is not resourced or enforced and which pays scant regard to equalities and human rights responsibilities, highways and road traffic legislation, planning law and guidance, and ignores our local context including our conservation areas.
This Council resolves to:
Minutes:
The Council considered the following Notice of Motion, submitted by Maria Gee and seconded by Imogen Shepherd-Dubey:
A carer with a buggy, a blind or partially sighted child, a teenager who has difficulty processing everyday sensory information, and a mobility scooter user, all use our pavements to access our shops, services and businesses. All residents should be able to move unhindered along our streets, without having to negotiate unnecessary pavement obstructions, such as pavement advertising. Unhindered access for all our residents will encourage more use of our shops and services and invigorate our town centres, benefitting businesses.
Residents look to us as a Council to change policies, procedures and practices that are discriminatory, and to take reasonable steps to enable disabled people and others with protected characteristics to avoid substantial disadvantages caused by physical features.
Under the Public Sector Equality Duty, public authorities are required to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination. Not taking action on street obstructions may also breach the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of Persons with a Disability.
It is not an option to leave things as they are, which is a one page guidance document for traders that is not resourced or enforced and which pays scant regard to equalities and human rights responsibilities, highways and road traffic legislation, planning law and guidance, and ignores our local context including our conservation areas.
This Council resolves to:
· Consult with local charities, voluntary organisations, residents’ groups and business representatives to develop policies, procedures and practices with respect to (i) pavement advertising and (ii) street and café furniture, to eliminate unlawful discrimination against residents with protected characteristics.
· Develop, working cross-party, a street charter by no later than 15 January 2021, that puts a ‘clear highway’ policy at the heart of decision-making and specifically addresses each of the above two areas of street obstruction.
· Develop, working cross party, policies, practices and procedures, that are resourced and enforced, no later than 31 March 2021 that specifically address the above two areas of street obstruction.
· Implement and monitor the adopted policies, procedures and practices from 1 April 2021, report on their successes or failures on an annual basis, and make improvements.
Pauline Jorgensen stated that she supported the principle of ensuring that pavements were not obstructed. However, she was forced to oppose the Motion as the Council already had a policy (approved in 2018) on ‘A’ Boards. That policy stated that the needs of the public to pass and re-pass safely when using a public area were paramount and the following requirements must be met at all times when positioning ‘A’ boards in any place to which the public had access. This included:
• Freedom of movement for the disabled;
• Freedom of movement for pushchairs;
• Flow of pedestrians;
• Access for emergency vehicles at all times.
The policy stated that ‘A’ Boards would only be tolerated on pavements where sufficient width of footway could be left clear to ensure safe passage for pedestrian/wheelchair traffic or those using the area with pushchairs (a minimum area of 2m should be left clear). The policy stated that all ‘A’ boards should be of high quality of a specified height and should be removed if they:
• Were unsightly or unsafe;
• Inappropriate due to new developments;
• Included any protruding elements that can caused a trip or fall;
• Made of materials that could cause injuries.
The policy also limited the number of ‘A’ boards to one per business premises. In the event that an ‘A’ Board was considered to be causing a nuisance or an obstruction to the free passage of the public, the Council would remove it without notice.
Councillor Jorgensen felt that this policy was adequate, if respected by shopkeepers or enforced, balancing the desire of businesses to advertise with the need to keep the streets safe for all our residents.
Councillor Jorgensen also stated that the Council should immediately adopt one part of Councillor Gee’s proposal, expanding the existing policy to include bollard covers. She stated that officers would put the amended policy out to public consultation to ensure that the views of groups representing disabled people, impacted residents and shopkeepers were captured and any substantive issues with the current policy were addressed. The Council would further commit to ensuring that these guidelines were followed when issues were raised.
Upon being put to the vote, the Motion was declared by the Mayor to be lost.