The Access sub group

The Access group is a subgroup of the Hastings and Rother Disability Forum (HRDF).We look at a wide variety of issues affecting disabled people's access to transport and the built environment.

The Group is made up of members of the HRDF committee and the Access officers from both Rother District Council and Hastings Borough Council. The Access group meetings are open meetings, so disabled people are welcome to come along and raise any issues they may have. As a group, we will then see if we can come up with solutions to those issues.

We work closely with Hastings Borough Council, Rother District Council and East Sussex County Council. As the group is made up of a number of disabled people, these statutory organisations often consult us on a variety of issues. We also regularly invite Council officers to our meetings to discuss issues affecting disabled people.

The Access group meetings are held in Committee Room 2 at Hastings Town Hall. We normally meet on the second Tuesday evening of the month. A full list of meeting dates in 2006 are given below. Due to the nature of the Access group's work, there are often site visits and other meetings regarding specific issues during the month, which usually take place in the afternoon. These enable us to look more closely at the issues involved and therefore means we can make better recommendations.

Some of the work that the Access group has recently been involved with includes:-

• Designing and developing the second access trail at Fairlight Country Park;
• Objecting to the closure of public toilets in Bexhill;
• Improving access to car parks owned by Hastings Borough Council;
• Objecting to changes in Hastings Borough Councils blue badge parking policy;
• Working with South-East Trains on access to the newly-built Hastings railway station;
• Pressuring Hastings Borough Council to increase the number of dropped kerbs and areas of tactile paving;
• Working with Seaspace to improve access to all their buildings.

If you would like to find out more about the work of the Access Group, you can download the minuets of the meetings.
Please note all minuets are In Word format.