Disabled Up In Arms About Twickenham Chairlift

11.43.50am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 26th Oct 2004

For many years disabled campaigners have been seeking better access to Twickenham Station. Last year a new chairlift was installed which was designed to solve the problem. But local disabled residents (and mothers with prams and pushchairs) are discovering that the chairlift is almost entirely unused and unusable: it can only be operated by members of staff, and they do not know how it works!

Vincent Cable MP has taken up the issue with the Chief Executive of SW Trains, which has responsibility for ensuring, under the Disability Discrimination Act, that stations provide access: "I first raised this issue several years ago with the railway company and they, belatedly, installed a chairlift. But although I am a regular commuter to and from Twickenham I have never seen the lift used and people who need it tell me that it is extraordinarily difficult to make use of since the staff haven't been trained to operate it."

Contacts: Lotte Campanale, 22 Grimwood Road, Twickenham, TW1 1BX or Margaret Tobback, 7 Clive Road, Twickenham, TW1 4SQ.