the long-awaited, disabled persons flat
Email to Lesley
15th August 2002
Leslery,
Read the below from my diary.
Today I went with Pete to the flat in Middleton. We
were able to gain access to the entrance lobby to the three downstairs
flats. There is a narrow corridor leading from the front door to
this lobby. This is not a huge space, but a handicapped person should
be able to open their own door ok. To gain access to and exit from
this lobby, however, is another matter since the totally unecessary
door to this lobby is closed by a hydraulic piston affair, a very
common device on doors for many decades. Here it means that a disabled
person in a wheelchair with muscular problems might have some problems
getting in but it would be impossible for them to get out. I tried
this myself, I know.
If I was trying to get out that door on my own with a fire raging
thru the building the housing association could look for another
tenant afterwards. The door is totally pointless and would cause
merriment and confusion if, say, four able-bodied people were to
leave seperate flats at the same time. This building has been partly
set aside for use by a person with disabilities. If this is the
lobby, what horrors lurk inside the flat itself?
The last thing I am going to suggest is reporting this to anyone.
Any obstacles to the handover of these flats must be avoided. Not
sure that the builders or housing association would be able to go
along with that 100%, someone somewhere has done some serious time-wasting
in the last four months. Let's not give anyone with a machine gun
a pebble to throw as well.
Love,
John.
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