-----Original Message-----
From: Heather-Joy Garrett
Sent: 03 July 2006 08:12
To: iambuying@stairwaytoheaven.me.uk
Subject: Access

I have been an Award Leader for the Duke of Edinburgh's Award over 12 years but in December 2001 I broke my ankle and now have to use a wheelchair to have a full life. I prepare young people to go out on expedition but can no longer go with them. This is hard and compounded by my husband who is currenty training to become a Mountain Leader. There is no way that the majority of the countryside could be made fully accessible but this project would seem to be one that could work without damaging the site.

Those members of the Dartmoor Preservation Society are obvilious fully abled and have no compassion for thse of us who can no longer stand on a ridge to admire the view and blow the cobwebs away. Perhaps they could take a moment to reflect that those of us who are disabled often have more cobwebs that need such treatment.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Swann
Sent: 04 July 2006 00:12
To: iambuying@stairwaytoheaven.me.uk
Subject:

For millennia Dartmoor has been a landscape in which 'all' could exploit, today it is a landscape that all should enjoy. Dartmoor has

given me as an able bodied person freedom, inner peace, excitement and abject terror. I say DPA, get off your high and precious horses. I

firmly support the chair lift and I would like to shake the hand of the person who devised the idea, good on you

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Norris
Sent: 03 July 2006 20:44
To: Alex Murdin
Subject: RE: Is this project the first of its kind in the UK?

Hi Alex,

Many thanks for getting back to me...that's good to know for the top line of the story.

It made a really nice report on BBC World Service Radio, using material from your website and a clip from your interview on the Today programme this morning too.

It raised a very interesting issue about how far the rights of those with disabilities should go...great agenda-broadening stuff, much more interesting than the regular diet of international politics! It was transmitted several times in our World Briefing news programme.

Hope all goes well with the project.

Rob  

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Is Solar-Powered Stair Lift 'Just Bonkers?'

That's how the president of the Dartmoor Preservation Association characterizes a plan conceived by artist Alex Murdin to make Hay Tor Rocks, a popular tourist destination within the Dartmoor National Park, accessible to people with disabilities:

 A controversial plan to install a 30ft solar powered stair lift to enable disabled people to reach the top of one of Dartmoor's most popular tors has been described by a leading environmentalist as "just bonkers".

Artist Alex Murdin also wants to install a 500-metre, zig zag granite pathway from a car park to enable those in wheelchairs to reach the stairlift at Hay Tor Rocks, which is visited by thousands of people every year.  

Planning permission for the scheme has been submitted to the Dartmoor National Park Authority by Mr Murdin, who is collaborating on the project with architect Nick Childs. But president of the Dartmoor Preservation Association, Kate Ashbrook, said the plan was "just bonkers" and what was being proposed was "a hideous eyesore".

As I'm also involved in disability issues at work, the response by Ms. Ashbrook is doubly offensive. I certainly understand wanting to preserve natural beauty, but if tourists are already climbing to the top of the Tor, access for people with disabilities seems only fair. The fact that Murdin envisions the lift as solar-powered creates a win-win situation in my mind. I'm guessing the Preservation Board isn't so concerned with preservation that they'd keep all tourists off the rocks...

From Yahoo! UK via Eco-Friend

Categories: disability, accessibility, solar, innovation, nationalpark, UK

posted by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg @ 8:47 PM  

http://sustainablog.blogspot.com/2006/07/is-solar-powered-stair-lift-just.html

BBC Website 03 07 06

Our reporter asked visitors for their views on the plan:

"It extends the advantage of the tourist, if there's an easy way of obtaining the beauty of this place it would be good value on its own."

"It's a good idea, if it enhances it for other people then all well and good."

"If people want to come up then it's fair enough. It's not just us, it's disabled people who can visit then as well, it's not going to change it dramatically so I think it's a good idea.

"We're not getting any younger so it looks brilliant! I think it's good people can get about to where they want to go, I've nursed most of my life and I know people who would love to visit."

Public Consultation at Dartington College of Art from 3rd – 21st July 2006

Comment Board