8th October 2013

Kingston Action on Transport

Facilitated by Kingston Centre for Independent Living

8th October 2013 at 3.30pm

Sessions House, 17 Ewell Road

Surbiton, KT6 6AF

Notes

Attending: Theo Harris, Patrick Goodacre, John Diamond, Stuart Disspain, Anne MacFarlane, Marie Cummings

Welcome

Theo opened the meeting by welcoming everybody and explained the history of the group and how the action point coming from the group will be progresses by KCIL through AH and PG.

Theo mentioned that she had previously been in contact with Highways and Transportation at RBK who indicated they would like to involved in the group. TH had emailed to invite representation to this meeting but autoreply advised that the person responsible will be away for a 4 to 6 week period.

JD brought the groups attention to the Transport Liaison meeting run by RBK held at the Guildhall or United Reformed Church which he attends and would feed back into this group.

The group talked about the other groups that focused on Transport and the various roles they played. It was agreed that this group would be disabled person driven and would avoid being driven by the agendas of other organisations.

JD advised the group of the role of the Learning Disability Parliament as an information gathering and ‘speaks out’ group for people with learning difficulties.

It was agreed that the Mental Health Parliament would be contacted and advised of KAT’s aims and invited to have a representative on this group.

Terms of Reference

The group reviewed the Draft Term of Reference for the Kingston Action on Transport and agreed various amendments.

Amendments

1.   'Facilitated by KCIL' should be added to the title and logo.

2.    ‘A coordinated approach for disabled people’ should be added to the objectives.

3.    Include ‘to be disabled person driven’ should be added to the objectives.

4.    Transport needs to be a whole service package that includes issues coming into play prior to leaving home and upon arrival at destination.

5.    Paragraph 3.1 to read ‘disabled people, older adults and carers’

6.    Paragraph 3.2 to read ‘Guest speaker on transport invited to provide input into the group’

7.    Paragraph 5.1 Meeting should be held at least 4 times a year

8.    Paragraph 7 Should Read ‘Kingston Action on Transport’

9.    Paragraph 7.1 Meetings will be made up of interested parties and volunteers who want to take an active role in improving the transport for disabled people living and working in Kingston upon Thames plus people inviting to attend by the group.

Feedback from Members

Dial-a-Ride. Group member related some the experiences they and other users had had when accessing the service due to the telephone not being answered.

Buggies in Space Allocated for Disabled Spaces. The members of the group spoke about the issues they had experienced or witnessed and how the procedures that had been put in place to deal with these issues were not being used. Specific reference was made to the issue of the abuse drivers faced when dealing with buggies, however many drivers were not using the pre-recorded messages available to them which may alleviate the problem.

The group agreed that the general public needed to be made more aware of the issues faced by disabled people when the general public use the disability spaces. The group agreed to look at how it could promote the use of the pre-recorded messages to bus drivers.

SD spoke of the how the Scottish Buses dealt with this issue and the piece of work the Learning Difficulty Parliament had undertaken. (AH asked if he could receive a copy of the piece of work)

Display and Messages on iBuses. Many of the group had experienced situations where the display message indictor on iBuses had been turned off and the volume turned down or off. The group felt that representation needed to be made to the bus companies on this matter, to promote the use of these indictors to bus drivers.

London Transport Mobility Forum. AM attended this meeting and reported back to the group the activities of the forum. Members asked if it would be possible to have a copy of the Terms of Reference of the forum.

Good Neighbourhood Schemes. AH mentioned ‘Good Neighbourhood Schemes’ to the group and their role in the transport. AM advised that they are better known as ‘care schemes’ and shared her experiences with the Chessington Care group. The group felt that more research needed to be undertaken about the groups operating in Kingston and reported back at the next meeting.

General Issues faced by group members in accessing transport. Member spoke of the many individual issues they had face when using the public transport system including lifts not working, pre booked staff member not attending, etc. and what action they needed to take to resolve the issue, including traveling to other station to change platforms and returning to the station.

It was agreed that KAT would be a medium for people to highlight individual issues they had faced travelling to and from Kingston as the incident, when seen in isolation, may not give a true picture of the number of issues disabled people have faced.

Cashless Buses Scheme

The group felt this was not an issue for disabled people as many made use of the freedom passes. The research in the local area indicated that the high use of cash on the X26 and 71 had been as a result of tourists visiting Chessington World of Adventure and Heathrow Airport. No Further Action Required

Any Other Business

‘Accessibility for All’ Article: AH brought to the attention the article that had appeared in the Metro newspaper about the ‘Accessibility for All’, mystery customer program. Many of the group were aware of the program but more research needed to be done

Big Red Bus:  SD & JD advised the group on the ‘Big Red Bus Day’ that took place on 21^st September 2013 and spoke in depth about the purpose of the First Route bus and the people, and organisations, involved in the project. MC advised that the funding was coming to an end and the future of the project would not be clear until the New Year.  The contact on this project for Transport for London is Janet Fish and it was felt that Janet needed to be contacted to be made aware of the group and its aims.

KAT Project Coordinator: The group discussed the need to find a volunteer to coordinate KAT. AM felt that they could be an opportunity to approach the Clinical Community Group to seek funding for a paid post.

Webpage, Facebook and Blog: PG advice the group of the Webpage, Facebook and Blog and how it could be accessed.

Speakers: The group felt that it would be good to invite speakers to the meeting and AM would find out the details of a person who had spoken at the London Transport Mobility Forum as had appeared to be able to give a cross transport perspective.

Young People: The group indicated that we need to obtain representation from disabled young people.

Future Meetings

KCIL were tasked to come back to the group with dates and times of future meeting for 2014.