The above photo (source The Mirror) is West Dunbartonshire Council's solution to wheelchair access to the home of a seven year old girl who has to use a wheelchair. My thanks to the loyal reader who pointed me to this story.
Ironically it seems that it has proven a hit with local youths and skateboarders.
The cost of this "fine" piece of design and engineering is estimated to be at least £40K!
Comments and architectural critiques are welcome.
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This kind of Nanny nonsense does more harm than good to disabled persons.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as a disabled person myself, I know I have some limits to what I can and cannot do and where I can and cannot go......I do not expect a wheelchair access ramp to the summit of Everest just so that I don't feel discriminated against.
This kind of thing, makes some people even more hostile to those of us that have disabilities and we don't need more people conducting campaigns designed to alienate and create hostility towards disabled persons.....Nanny and her media chums are doing that very well on their own.
I was going to tell you about this, but see I've been beaten to it! Unbelievable...
ReplyDeleteA nice simple straight ramp up one side would have done the trick.
ReplyDeleteI don't claim to have any qualifications on judging the aesthetics of architecture, Ken, but my first impression on seeing this er, this er, 'this' was that somebody had dumped a load of shopping trolleys outside the person's home! Neither am I surprised that this has proved popular with local skateboarders and other youths. I wonder if the council decided to kill two birds with one stone and provide a facility with dual purpose, a wheelchair ramp for the girl in question, AND a skateboard park for the local youths? Let's face it, Ken, in these times of austerity there is a need to save on unnecessary expense! However, I quite agree with you, it is GHASTLY!
ReplyDeleteTonk said, "This kind of Nanny nonsense does more harm than good to disabled persons. Speaking as a disabled person myself, I know I have some limits to what I can and cannot do and where I can and cannot go......I do not expect a wheelchair access ramp to the summit of Everest just so that I don't feel discriminated against."
Really? Why not, Tonk? It's your yuman rite innit? Seriously, I take your point and completely agree. This kind of nonsense simply creates far more problems
than it solves.
Debbie said, "A nice simple straight ramp up one side would have done the trick".
Too simple a concept for Nanny to grasp: her philosophy seems to be, "Why make things easy for people, when, with just a little imagination, they can be made totally impossible!
I have designed a ramp or two and these do get quite unwieldy. It all comes down to Building Codes and most things in the codes do actually make sense.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what the local code says, but I suspect it would be much the same as that on this side of the Pond, which requires a maximum slope of 1 in 12 and a flat section every 9m (max) (that is to allow the poor wheelchair rider to pause for breath).
Looking at the photo in the link, it looks like each flight of steps is about 3ft high, and there are apparently three flights. If they are all the same, then that is a total change in height of 9ft, which means the ramp must be no shorter than 108ft. Add in a couple of landings and you are looking at a straight 120ft run. Somehow I doubt the house is more than 120ft back from the sidewalk, so the only option is to do the zig-zag. Now you have landings at either end requiring about 10ft width and you are not left with a whole lot in between, resulting in the mess you see in the picture.
I actually feel sorry for the poor sod who had to design this.
Update:
ReplyDeleteI found the house on Google Earth.
Measuring, it looks like the front door is about 30ft from the sidewalk, so there is no chance that a straight ramp could be built.
I can see the three flights of steps, and there is another single step at the front door. Throw in the fact that the path still slopes between the steps and you have a significant height between sidewalk and front door.
Ugly though it is, I don't see there was much of an alternative.
Again, give the poor designer a break. Especially so when the press try to ridicule him.
"Ugly though it is, I don't see there was much of an alternative"
ReplyDeleteFair point, regarding the slope. At least this one isn't going to collapse in the first heavy rain. We have a daytime TV series in the UK which targets "dodgy" builders. I remember one episode featured a ramp similar to this. However the standard of construction was diabolical, and it was positively dangerous. The "professional" team had to virtually re-build it...
Actually this is what you get for being a social parasite in Britain's lefty dependency culture. Had this wee girl's dad go nifty with half a dozen bags of cement on a Sunday the taxpayer would have been saved 40K.
ReplyDeleteThank.. You.. Anonymous. A well considered & concise analysis of the problem. Us lesser mortals might have thought the money better spent moving to a more accessible house. My own mother is a social parasite. She is known as as a pensioner. Paid NI all her life & is on pension credit.
DeleteTake your republican ideas back where they belong.
No, your own mother is NOT a social parasite; she paid pension contributions. Those people are on the dole: they take everything and give noting to society: there's a huge difference.
DeleteAlso, I think your use of the word 'republican' is way "off" here: for one thing, many left-wing people would like to see monarchy in Britain replaced by a republic, and for the other thing, I am a right-wing monarchist. I suppose you are using 'republican' in the narrow way it is used in North America.
"Take your republican views back where they belong" . . . LOL I, for one, belive in democracy; that means that both you (who, perhaps, has political beliefs I strongly disagree with) and I (who seem to have beliefs you strongly disbleive in) should be able, totally freely, to express our views in an open forum; without daft comments like the one you just made.
BTW Ken, there seems to be a bug. I am unable to post with a profile "Name/URL". I'd rather not have to have replied to @anon8:48 as anon myself.
ReplyDeleteHere's your favourite "republican" who has no great urge to be 'anonymous' either, after all, one should stand up for what one believes in (even, LOL, if they antagonise the other chap),and have managed to post under Name/URL before.
DeleteHowever, as unable to do now, I will just sign my name here:
Richmond Mathewson
and put my home-page here: http://andregarzia.on-rev.com/richmond/home.html
Well, here we are happy campers (?); I am looking at this via Firefox 276 running on Ubuntustudio 13.10; let's see if I can register it with Name and URL.
ReplyDeleteRichmond Mathewson.