Ramping up the pressure

By Elizabeth Choppin

Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson has thrown her weight behind a petition to make the front door of 10 Downing Street acces­sible for wheelchair-users.

The petition to Gordon Brown’s office, fronted by disability access consultant David Burdus, has called for the government to address the fact that wheelchair-users cannot enter through the front door of Number 10 because it has a step.

Dame Tanni said: “I have signed the petition because I think Number 10 should be accessible. I have been there a couple of times and have been able to get in and out OK, but I think it would be a great message to send out if a building like this was ramped.”

Mr Burdus first challenged the government on the issue in 1994 when he visited the then Prime Minister to receive an honour, but was forced to use a temporary ramp at the building’s side door.

Mr Burdus said: “I think it gives a very bad impression of our government. It was shocking the way I was treated.”

Andy Rickell, an executive director at Scope, said: “Wheelchair-users should be able to enter the front door of one of the most famous addresses in the world, which houses the centre of British political power, and not enabling them to do so sends out a very negative message to disabled people. It appears to suggest that their needs are not important and politically are a peripheral issue.”

Disability campaigner Rachel Hurst said: “It’s important for 10 Downing Street to be visibly accessible to disabled people. The fact that they’re proposing to bring us in around the side reflects how they’re dealing with us politically all the time, by sidelining our issues.”

A spokesman for Number 10 said the petition would be answered “in the usual way” following the closing date for signatures in August.

The petition had 139 signatures as Disability Now went to press. To sign the petition, go to http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Access10/