Blind adventurer Red Széll

POLITICIANS relentlessly talk about equalities and their visions for making life fairer for all.

And yet there is an incredible sluggishness in the way complaints from the disabled are dealt with. Or dispensed with, as it most often turns out.

Disabled and blind people are regularly faced with obstructions when making simple trips in the community.

They have been complain­ing about it in Camden for years, if not decades. No one has been rushing to help.

The blind adventurer Red Széll told councillors in the Town Hall on Monday that the problem in Hampstead was getting worse and worse, (Blind climber Red Széll calls for ban on advert boards on pavements, July 20).

Back in 2015, a group of Camden disabled residents wrote to us about Hampstead becoming an “obstacle course”, warning that the high street had become “impassable” due to advertising board street clutter.

At that time, senior councillors said the Town Hall had ordered Hampstead businesses to remove pavement advertising boards.

So why does the problem remain? Or was nothing done in the first place?

There are so many simple things that councils and other authorities could do to help the visually impaired people.

Just a couple of recent suggestions from our readers include an easy-to-find direct landline number for reporting access problems, and putting markings down on the pavement edge.

Take the proposed ticket office closures that appear likely to be pushed through with scant thought for disabled people will be affected.

As Claire Glasman of WinVisible writes, this is part of a wider malaise that has left many Camden train stations inaccessible.

The West Hampstead Amenity and Transport group has been campaigning for 15 years for “step-free access” at West Hampstead tube station.

The Mayor of London, without any sense of irony, last week made a big public announcement about the project being put on a “priority list” in a new review. And even this is only taking place because of a proposed investment from the O2 Centre developer.

It is well over a decade since the Equality Act legislation came into force. It was supposed to ensure disabled people have the right to adjustments at work, services and in buildings.

Access is a legal right. It’s about time the powers that be started treating it that way.