Novel uses for a wheelchair ramp #1
- 26 Jun 07, 10:30 PM
This is pretty much a run of the mill news story about planning permission for a wheelchair ramp being refused. Except for one rather odd aspect….
has reported that the manager of an Arts Centre in Grange has objected to the local council’s refusal to grant him permission to install a ramp outside his business.
The councillors’ concerns concentrate mainly on the planned ramp’s impact on the width of the pavement and on the business next door. Ok, so we may not like that, but we're unlikely to be surprised by it.
Councillor Tom Harvey, though, has an entirely different concern. He thinks late-night drinkers might use the ramp. “People will accumulate on there”, he said.
Erm, am I missing something here? As long as the business to which the ramp leads is shut for the night, what’s the problem with late night drinkers “accumulating” on it? In what way is “accumulating” on a ramp worse than “accumulating” on a pavement? Is there something particularly sinister about ramp-loitering? Or is there something so unbelievably magnetic about a wheelchair ramp that it would prove an irresistible draw to every drinker in the town?
The last wheelchair ramp I saw was sort of grey and hard and slopey. Functional, yes, but not a thing of beauty. Now, I’m not one for hanging about town centres late at night with a bottle of something alcoholic in the hand I’m not using to prod someone repeatedly in the shoulder and tell them they’re my best friend. But if I were, I can’t imagine that my eyes would light up at the prospect of having a ramp to congregate on. Not unless it was fitted with comfy seating and potted palms, anyway.
If you’re aware of any other bizarre planning objections to adaptations which would make buildings more accessible, I’ve no doubt the Ouch team would be thrilled if you’d recount them in the comments on this entry.
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Comments
In my local town a chippy had its planning permission for a ramp turned down as it would affect the character of the building.
I mean, it's a Chippy, for goodness sake!
I have complained to the local police in a nearby town about crowds of young students "hanging out" on the convenience store handicap parking area, which goes on all summer long. The police did nothing but tell me what great kids they are! DUH. The parking space is not the problem. The kids are. Great people don't hang out in handicap parking spaces- unless they happen to have a disability and park their vehicle there.
Drunks on a ramp. Well, it's not a good idea for the drunks. Especially when you're me a few years ago.
I was only a prt time wheelchair user back then and one rather drunken evening, me & two of my also drunken friends thought it would be great fun to have a 'rolling competition' down the ramp.
Throughout the following week we compared brand new bruises and swore never to be so silly again.
Its a silly excuse though, how are a few congregated frunks going to damage a concrete ramp?
Youths on the rampage perhaps?
I know discussions with my son about my own ramps (should they ever happen) have veered into skateboarding territory.
Um, no I don't think they are meant for you to kick flip on...
But kids in urban environments are attracted to any concrete structure they can bounce off. Whether its a drinking thing or a free running thing, or skateboarding, they will clamber and lurch and jump about.