Policy Papers

17^th May 2002

Rt Hon Sir David Steel KBE MSP
Presiding Officer
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP

Dear Sir David,

Wheelchair accessible seating in new Parliament Chamber

A representative of the Scottish Disability Equality Forum was present at the Meeting of the Cross Party Group on Disability, held on Wednesday, 24th April 2002, when a presentation was given on access at the new Parliament buildings.

We were greatly concerned to learn on that occasion that the Corporate Body had made a decision to reduce the number of wheelchair accessible spaces in the Chamber from 81 to 61 without prior discussion.

The SDEF are members of the Holyrood Consultation Group under Buro Happold, Access Consultants to the Project. It has always been our understanding that the outcome for the Parliament buildings at Holyrood is that they would be a 'centre of excellence' for access for people with disabilities.

We understand that there has been no reference to the Consultation Group by the Corporate Body on the changes to the earlier decision on seating arrangements which had been made in 1999.

We would welcome some indication as to why this change has been necessary and if, in fact, we can expect a return to the original decision of 1999.

Naturally this unexpected change in the plans is a cause of great concern to us and leads us to worry that there could be further changes to the facilities for disabled people at the new Parliament buildings without consultation.

We would welcome your assurance that this will not happen and that no decisions in the future will be taken without the opportunity of discussion.

We look forward to hearing from you

Yours faithfully,

Elma Mitchell MBE

Convenor SDEF

Cc to Michael Matheson, MSP

Scottish Disability Equality Forum

Working together for the disability movement

SDEF is a recognised Scottish charity no. SC031893

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