Making Hebden Bridge accessible for all
Wednesday, 10 August 2016
The Community Foundation for Calderdale and Hebden Bridge Partnership have great pleasure in inviting you to the launch of a new initiative, designed to help the local economy recover from the Boxing Day floods and to promote Hebden Bridge as an exemplary town for access for those with disabilities. The launch will be in Hebden Bridge Town Hall on Saturday 3rd September at 11am.
Both the Community Foundation and the Partnership are conscious that one of the side-effects of current localflood resilience work could potentially be that shops, premises and public buildings become less accessible for those who have disabilities (floors are raised, steps put in, etc). Our aim with this new initiative is both to assist local people with disabilities, but also to make the town as attractive as possible to visitors and tourists who have particular access needs. We want to broaden the range of people who decide to visit the town.
The Community Foundation has agreed to fund an access audit from the local specialist social enterprise Visits Unlimited, which will be conducted this Autumn by Chris Cammiss. Chris, who is a wheelchair user, will be focusing on accessibility in its broadest sense, not just mobility issues. Chris will be pragmatic, looking wherever possible for effective workable solutions to current access difficulties.
Participation in the access audit is entirely voluntary, but we hope you will want to join in. The Community Foundation is currently investigating ways that small grants to local businesses can be made available in order to undertake work recommended by Chris in his audit report, and although at the moment this is not yet confirmed we very much hope that by 3rd September we will be able to give you some very positive news in this respect."
More information will be available on the 3rd. ln the meantime you can obtain further details from Rob Billson at the Community Foundation or from the Partnership's secretary Andrew Bibby.