BLINKING BOLLARDS
ANGER AS BRADFORD BOLLARDS POLICY ‘TOO STRICT’
Wheelchair-bound Sid Addy, from Allerton, says new city centre bollards are robbing him of his regular pint. The 70-year-old who has Parkinson’s dis- ease, has been drinking in Ivegate since his teens and turns up three times a week at The Cube pub with his carer Murial Clough - until now. He says the electronic bollards are discrimi- nating against him and other disabled people because the officials operating them refuse to lower them to let their taxis through. He told the Bradford Telegraph and Argus: “I’ve been getting a taxi to take me door to door
and now I can’t even get to the pub door. “They have to drop me and Muriel at the top or the bottom and we have to make our own way. It’s a hard push up for Muriel or if we go down the hill the chair just runs away from her with me in it. It’s dangerous.
“It’s bad enough being stuck in a wheelchair without the council making it more awk- ward for me.”
Mr Addy is planning on writing to his local MP for help. He wants the council to change its policy to allow taxis to drop off and pick up passengers who are registered disabled. The Cube’s manager,
Tracy Barber, said she was fuming when she asked for the bollards to be lowered to let Mr Addy through.
“They refused even though I explained to them his wheelchair had broken,” she said. Derek Greenaway, who also manages The Cube, said the bollard officials had even sug- gested an ambulance should be called to pick up Mr Addy, because it would be the only vehi- cle allowed through. “We just want the bol- lards to be operated more flexibly,” he said. The bollards were introduced earlier this year as part of a £1.6 million programme to improve the area.
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PAGE 26
A taxi driver was left shaken after his vehi- cle was written off by Stonebow’s controver- sial rising bollard. Onlookers watched as the electronic bol- lard on Stonebow rose up under a 2005 Vauxhall Zafira at about 5.30pm on a recent Thursday. The 50-year-old driver, who did not wish to be named, said he was following the normal procedures for going over the bollard when the incident occurred. “I was doing about 15 or 20 miles an hour, concentrating on the lights as I approached, and the next thing I knew I felt myself going up,” the driver, who works for a York- based taxi firm, told the York Press.
He had no passenger at the time. The driver said he faced losing takings until he could borrow a replacement vehicle. “This bollard is
a total pain. It should never have been placed here. It’s about time the council got this sorted out,” he said. Darren Capes, City of York Council’s trans- port systems manager, said a diagnostic check showed no faults with the bollard. “Checks of the bollard immediately after- wards revealed that it had suffered serious damage, suggesting a very heavy impact from a vehicle travel- ling at significant speed,” he said.
“A fault related to the bollard’s control switches was rectified just over two weeks ago, but the bollard has been operating normally since then. “It is unlikely that the device in the taxi that causes the bollard to lower had failed and we have no evidence to suggest there was a failure of the system.” Mmm... we haven’t had any other stories about misbehaving bollards lately - this one looked particular- ly painful! - Ed
Photo courtesy of the York Press PHTM SEPTEMBER 2010
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