Parking question...

[DanaC]

I think one of the difficulties in my country is the apparent lack of financial assistance in making buildings compliant. There's help there in the form of grants, but I don't think for private companies, or licensed premises. I was trying to get hold of some kind of grant funding for the Working Men's Club in my ward, because the British Legion (old soldiers mainly) use it for many of their charity functions and the only suitable suite within the club is upstairs. So far I haven't found any that would assist a private club.

I realise it's a different problem to the one the thread started with, but I do think it's quite a large reason for so many smaller businesses, stores, clubs and pubs still being very disabled unfriendly.

On a more positive note, the campaign to save the Remploy assisted factories (the one whose rally I spoke at) has had some success. The government's announced a £560 million rescue package to help the factories modernise the areas that need it and assistance in securing local government precurement contracts. That and an assurance that no factory will close without the direct involvement/permission of the government minister responsible. Oh yeah, and no compulsory redundancies

That's a coup, I think. The T&G union played a blinder with that campaign and utilised the party conference machine beautifully, to push the agenda.

Remploy was set up in the aftermath of WW2 to provide jobs for the war-disabled. The factories produce real goods, are often very skilled work and the jobs are proper jobs. But...they are not having to compete for those jobs against non-disabled workers, the factories and workshops are designed to be accessible to anybody, regardless of their physicality. They've grown into an organisation that employs many thousands of people, with every conceivable disability, including learning disabilities. Their factories have training centres and support staff, social areas etc.

They used to make pretty much all the uniforms for the armed forces as well as most of the furniture in our schools. They do everything (in different factories and regions) from bookbinding (which is what they do in my area) to steelworking.