Topic: Equality Act 2010...

[Nigel B]

Being involved in the process of creating new allotments which are to include public access to community gardens with easy-access containers and raised beds, I was reading about Harriet Harmon's  :-X 'parting gift to the nation' The Equality Act 2010, which came into force on 1st October 2010.
And what a gift it is.....
To lawyers. 

That said though, discrimination of any kind is cruel and unnecessary so we have to deal with it by planning access carefully..
The NSALG say Paths Should now be 1.4 metres to enable disabled access, with haulage-ways of 3 Metres.

The question causing most discussion is how far we now have to take this.
Which paths? ALL paths? How about those between plots?
Reading the excitingly-named Guidance and good practice for service providers on the forthcoming Equality Act 2010 from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, it appears that we now have a "Duty to make reasonable adjustments:

Where a disabled person is at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with people who are not disabled, there is a duty to take reasonable steps to remove that disadvantage by (i) changing provisions, criteria or practices, (ii) altering, removing or providing a reasonable alternative means of avoiding physical features and (iii) providing auxiliary aids........

The question NOW is............ "What is reasonable.... And what isn't?"

I would welcome your thoughts....

[marcitos]

At the end of the day, if it has to go that far, it would be for a court to decide what is reasonable or not.

Why not carry out a survey amongst your plotholders re disability & start from there. At least then you are being pro-active. Find out what changes need to be made (if any), again being pro-active. Cost is an importantant factor. Changing a gate lock for ease of access or removing a physical barrier eg a hedge could be seen as 'reasonable'. Anything that will be a heavy cost financially may be seen as 'unreasonable'. Keeping on updating records & regular monitoring of the situation shouldn't be that difficult.

A lot of this should have been done under the 2005 Duty. Don't see much difference in what the 2010 states.

[Nigel B]

Thanks Marcitos. Some sound advice there.

I suppose one of the compounding factors is the size of the site and the plots.
We have room for 22 full-sized plots, (About 300sq Yards), with separate areas for keeping livestock. One for chickens and rabbits, and another separate area for bee-keeping.
There's also room for a relaxation/picnic area, an easy-access area with raised beds and beds for the local Junior School. Flowerbeds for the local hospice or hospital or local business sponsors.

All-in-all, 'space' is not something we're short of.



It was proposed that plots be separated by paths of up to a metre wide, but the question was then raised that the paths, if there are to be any, may have to be 1.4 metres as recommended by the NSALG in their advice document, 'Creating a New Allotment Site', with the words "Paths Should now be 1.4 metres to enable disabled access.

The site will be pretty easily accessible once some amount of hard-standing has been laid near the entrance.
I'm for opening the whole thing up, but some think it a step too far.
I expect a decision by the (Almost) plot-holders this weekend. Hopefully, they'll vote to be inclusive, not selective.

[Unwashed]

That's a fantastic new site, well done.  Just an observation about keeping chickens and rabbits, but you have a right to keep them in any place on the land, so you can't restrict them to any particular area.

[tonybloke]

ditto all of the previous posts, and another one for you. From an insurance point of view, our association insists on BeeKeepers being a member of the
 BBKA    http://www.britishbee.org.uk/   (that way they have public liability cover)

[Mr Smith]

Would it ever get to the stage when it was illegal for someone to be on an allotment site on there own? similar to working in certain areas in industry, in the last couple of months we have had on our allotments one chap having a fit because he was stung by a wasp and is allergic to wasp stings, thankfully someone phoned the paramedics, another old boy Jeff struggles to get his breath when he is on his lotty so he only goes to the lotty when his mate is up there, and yours truly nearly took a thumb off last week, with blood peeing out everywhere I managed to get to the health centre but I was on my own on the lotty, :)

[Unwashed]

Would it ever get to the stage when it was illegal for someone to be on an allotment site on there own? similar to working in certain areas in industry, in the last couple of months we have had on our allotments one chap having a fit because he was stung by a wasp and is allergic to wasp stings, thankfully someone phoned the paramedics, another old boy Jeff struggles to get his breath when he is on his lotty so he only goes to the lotty when his mate is up there, and yours truly nearly took a thumb off last week, with blood peeing out everywhere I managed to get to the health centre but I was on my own on the lotty, :)

Interesting point.  I can't see it being enforceable, but there's something to be said for being up there with other people.  Nasty incident with the thumb, I hope you're OK now.

[Mr Smith]

Would it ever get to the stage when it was illegal for someone to be on an allotment site on there own? similar to working in certain areas in industry, in the last couple of months we have had on our allotments one chap having a fit because he was stung by a wasp and is allergic to wasp stings, thankfully someone phoned the paramedics, another old boy Jeff struggles to get his breath when he is on his lotty so he only goes to the lotty when his mate is up there, and yours truly nearly took a thumb off last week, with blood peeing out everywhere I managed to get to the health centre but I was on my own on the lotty, :)

Interesting point.  I can't see it being enforceable, but there's something to be said for being up there with other people.  Nasty incident with the thumb, I hope your OK now.

Unwashed,  Always be careful with home made shredder with a 5hp Briggs&Stratton engine for power, ;)

[tonybloke]

Always be careful with home made shredder with a 5hp Briggs&Stratton engine for power, ;)

Like you were? Lol

hope it's on the mend, and that you didn't do any permanent damage   ;)

[Nigel B]

Thanks for your input Unwashed and Tonybloke...  :)

I didn't know about the right to house the chickens anywhere, but the thinking behind 'restricting' them to their own area is that we have enough space so that everyone that wants to keep chickens can do so in one place where keeping them safe from Mr Fox can be done communally and to better effect. I'll bear it in mind though, should anyone express a wish to keep theirs anywhere else.

If you look at the picture, you can see an old oak tree with branches that hang low enough to make it ideal for sitting under. So good that one of the few councillors I consider to be worthy of the post has volunteered to build a bench that encircles the trunk so it can be enjoyed by anyone. Great stuff!

As to the paths issue, it is causing enormous strife within the committee itself.
 There are a variety of different views ranging from no paths at all between plots, to those wanting only wheelbarrow access, to my own view which is that we should open it up to access for all.
I have remained constant on this issue, and consistent with the drawings submitted to the County Council's Planning Dept.
 Our planning application (You have to tick the box at the bottom of the page to see the paperwork), has a 'Design and access statement' which also says paths should be a min of 1.4 metres.

The plots are more than 300sq metres each for  :-X goodness sakes.

Anyway, more information as it becomes available......
Thanks again for your input folks..... Oh, and Tonybloke.... Cheers for that, although we had been made aware of it by our 'tame bee-keepers' who want to set up a couple of hives in return for mentoring our own would-bee bee-keepers.

[Nigel B]

'Tis an interesting point of Mr Smith's too, about being alone on the allotment too. Certainly one worth bringing up at our next committee meeting....  :)

[tonybloke]

'Tis an interesting point of Mr Smith's too, about being alone on the allotment too. Certainly one worth bringing up at our next committee meeting....  :)

mobile 'phones to be compulsory?

[chriscross1966]

Thanks for your input Unwashed and Tonybloke...  :)

I didn't know about the right to house the chickens anywhere, but the thinking behind 'restricting' them to their own area is that we have enough space so that everyone that wants to keep chickens can do so in one place where keeping them safe from Mr Fox can be done communally and to better effect. I'll bear it in mind though, should anyone express a wish to keep theirs anywhere else.

Any sane chicken keeper would jump at the chance to keep their chickens inside a set-aside bit, apart form anything else it would mean that other folks would be abler to keep an eye on them , as well as the security being better. IMHO all allotments ought to be allowed bees. My old site noticed a jump in bean and several other crop productivity afer a bee-witch started keeping bees on the site...

chrisc

[Unwashed]

Nigel, the paths thing is tricky isn't it.  As a minimum I'd say you'd need to be able to negotiate the main haulage ways and the main gate, and get into and around the site hut and loo in a wheel chair, but I don't see that there's a need for 1.4 wide paths as that does lose an awful of ground over the whole site.  A reasonable adaptation could be that you'd have to widen the path to accomodate any tenant with an appropriate disability, and there'd be no objection anyway to a tenant widening their own paths for pushchairs say.

I didn't think allotment sites needed planning permission.  S55.(2).e Town and Country Planning Act 1990 lets you use any land for agriculture and Crowborough Parish Council v. Secretary of State for the Environment [1981] established that agriculture here includes allotments.

[manicscousers]

we had to do 4' paths along the main 'avenues' of our plots but not on the individual plots themselves, we have 4' paths all around our raised bed area for our less abled friends  :)

[Unwashed]

we had to do 4' paths along the main 'avenues' of our plots but not on the individual plots themselves,

Was that a requirement of a grant or something like that Manics?

[manicscousers]

It was a requirement of the club, they couldn't get their 1.5 million if the whole site wasn't accessible..then they squashed 4 full allotments and took a further 18' off us to build on , but that's a different story

[Nigel B]

Nigel, the paths thing is tricky isn't it.  As a minimum I'd say you'd need to be able to negotiate the main haulage ways and the main gate, and get into and around the site hut and loo in a wheel chair, but I don't see that there's a need for 1.4 wide paths as that does lose an awful of ground over the whole site.  A reasonable adaptation could be that you'd have to widen the path to accomodate any tenant with an appropriate disability, and there'd be no objection anyway to a tenant widening their own paths for pushchairs say.

I didn't think allotment sites needed planning permission.  S55.(2).e Town and Country Planning Act 1990 lets you use any land for agriculture and Crowborough Parish Council v. Secretary of State for the Environment [1981] established that agriculture here includes allotments.

A tricky business indeedy Unwashed…
So anyway, our secretary arranged for a ’disability adviser’ to come down from the county council to the site this morning to get his opinion.
After showing him the site, and learning he hadn’t bothered to look at the drawings we submitted to the planning department which specify that paths should be 1.4metres, (We need permission because the field hadn’t been used for agriculture before.), nor had he read our Design And Access Statement  which also states the same….

Outcome was that the bloke said it wasn’t necessary as long as we had ‘made an effort’…… Then, as he was shaking hands and leaving, he said he was pleased to give us the benefit of his advice, even though it was as much a learning experience for him as it was for us, as his area of expertise was sports halls and leisure centres!…… Turns out he’s the senior Property Surveyor.

Ah well…..
I’m still not convinced, not by a long shot. But I was outflanked, I’ll admit that much. ;)