Can anybody suggest how to help my grandson?

Me and the family went to the New York stadium in Rotherham for the recent Womens International vs Sweden. I'm in a pot more or less permanently and stairs are very difficult/ dangerous for me. Got in the ground and an official walks up to me and says "Would you like to use the lift, sir?"

 

Ganaye has responded on Twitter

 

Beat me to it! Thanks to all who responded. Looks like a good outcome, thanks to GG. We can have a ticket swap to anywhere else suitable plus a likely visit from Toby and/or a player, which will really be the icing on the cake.

Thanks go to Wellsie for this one. That's where we are aiming for. He can walk slowly by swinging his legs so getting there should be ok. The one step down should be dead easy to sort. I've just has an email from the box office to say call in before the game to get the tickets sorted.

 

Very classy guy is Gauthier it seems. We’re lucky to have him.

 

Wonderful stuff again from the club and Gauthier really proud to have him represent our club.

 

Wow!!

Little things like that cost the club nothing really but gain a huge amount of respect and a little fan for life In the club!!!

Top efforts GG & BFC

 

FANTASTIC NEWS. Well impressed.

 

Great response BFC well done

Glad you and your son got sorted

Here’s to 3 points to round off a great story

 

Brill I know they ve swapped seats for season tickets for people who have had needed that doing due to changing circumstances.

 

Nice one mate glad you got sorted, if you get there nice and early you can avoid the crowd and probably hang around for 5 mins afterwards to let the crowd go again.

 

What a great Club. Just that. I’m made up.

 

So pleased everything has worked out for you, well done GG and BFC, absolute class.

 

How do you propose to give DDA Compliant access to a stand like the East, which also allows for safe evacuation too? You realistically cannot due to the landscape for which it sits on.

As far as I’m aware, the Corner Stand offers DDA compliant access to the lower floor. The West Lower is also easier to access and that’s on top of the other arrangements.

Whilst I’m not saying any club can’t improve it’s disabled access, to suggest the East Stand was appallingly designed is far off the mark.

I’d be appalled if my club let a 90 year old person upstairs, knowing full well they’d struggle to get out in Emergency....... There’s more to life than a seat number.

 

You've seriously missed the point here. The issue isn't access into the ground but access out of it in case of an emergency. Lift access may not be available in an emergency and therefore anyone in an exec box or upper tier seat has to be able to get out on their own. It's not a question of prioritising fully ambulant people or a badly designed stand. It's simply a question of whether someone can get down the stairs on their own in an emergency.

 

Both good points but I'd like to that that elderly, partially disabled could use the lift. The stand is made of steel and concrete which isn't the fastest burner unlike the west stand which can't still be fire compliant.

As the risk and probability of the the stand catching fire is incredibly low and if all other fire checks are carried out properly prior to fans arriving before each game, which is the most important thing then elderly disabled fans could be guided to a place of safety on the concourse by emergency trained stewards and the emergency services would help them out.

 

There are ways around that though. I work at a special school that is over 3 floors. We have 2 lifts that can be used in the event of a fire, a fire safe room that can be used to wait in if the lifts are broken for some reason, slide things (don’t know their official name) that can be used on stairs and wheelchair hoists to be used out of windows. It can be done with proper planning. Obviously, there are far more people on a match day but you would have to limit numbers of disabled places upstairs. It’d be too expensive to change it now but I hope that if they do rebuild the West Stand one day they consider how to accommodate disabled people better.

 

With respect here, this is a low volume building, specifically designed for the purpose of it’s disabled users. Most public buildings are not.

Good planning mitigates the need for any safe lifts, safe rooms and assisted decent.

At Oakwell, other stands/areas are available - that mitigates the need.

I don’t think a disabled person would be accommodated on the top tier of seating at the O2 either - it’s ridiculously high up.

 

I’ve had similar experience to you JD. I worked at a college based in a 7 storey building with hundreds of disabled students (and thousands of able bodied ones). Everyone used the lifts and we had an evacuation strategy for anyone with mobility issues. There are ways to manage it.

Be interesting to see if the East Stand would get planning consent these days with current Disability Discrimination Act legislation....