At 7am on Thursday, July 4th 2024 the polls will open for the 2024 General Election, this year I decided to apply for a postal vote because it makes my voting experience better as someone living with a disability.
I received my ballot paper this afternoon (Thursday, June 20th 2024) so that I had time to cast my vote and return it to Herefordshire Council in time for counting on election day.
I chose to once again back the conservative party candidate for Hereford and South Herefordshire, Jesse Norman and this also meant that I backed his party in Westminster.
I have backed the Tories ever since I turned at 18 years old and will continue to do so until the day that I take my last breath.
If it wasn’t for Jesse and his constituency team I wouldn’t have been given the opportunity to visit the Department for Transport and meet with the Minister for Roads and Local Transport in March last year.
Meeting with the Minister and his departmental official’s gave me the opportunity to convince them that we need more dropped curbs across England so that the roads are not used by the disabled community as our pavement.
Richard Holden, who was the Minister for Roads and Local Transport at the time acknowledged that we do need more dropped curbs nationally during the meeting but also said that it is down to local authorities to determine where they spend allocated funds for the road network in there counties.
I also shared other disabled peoples experiences of the pavement network from across the country with him and his departmental officials. There was one story that left those in the meeting quite shocked because of the level of risk that people were going to find the next available dropped curb.
I returned to the Department for Transport a few months later and met with officials from Active Travel England, where we discussed how those who use wheelchairs, walking aids and mobility scooters can be become more active by getting outdoors in any way possible.
Jesse Norman, who was the Minister for Active Travel at the time of the meeting also made an appearance both in his capacity as a Government Minister and my local Member of Parliament.
The result of Herefordshire’s election will be announced in the early hours of Friday July the 5th,2024.
I also believe that there needs to be accessibility signage installed at all unstaffed railway stations across the nation that have highest number of mobility assist’s, West Midlands Trains have already started doing this, and have installed said signage at couple of stations around Birmingham in Aston and Witton.
The operator has also introduced fence signage at both stations that can be seen from either end of the platforms by passengers, event station staff and train crew.
Earlier this year I wrote to the Department for Transport calling on them to introduce guidance around the introduction of accessibility signage at unstaffed stations across the country. In the letter I mentioned that I shouldn’t have been:
- Forced to campaign for a number of years in order to achieve this massive change at stations on behalf of football supporters and residents from the local areas.
This guidance is needed and it is needed now, not in 5 or so years time!!!!!
If you enjoyed reading this evenings post and want to receive them direct to your inbox within minutes of publication then why not subscribe.
Subscribe: https://cameronwooddotblog.wordpress.com/.
I would like to thank each and everyone of you, my readers and followers for taking the time out of your busy schedules to read my latest post, it doesn’t go unnoticed and is very
Cam
JustBeingCP 