Chair: David Foster – Tel: 01788 544991 Secretary: John Burrell – Tel 01788 533796
Rugby Disability Forum – Ordinary Meeting.
Held at Hamilton House on Tuesday 29th November 2005 at 10am.
Present: David Foster, John Burrell, Enid Blencowe, Jean Box, Mala Solanki, Geoff Wilde, Joanne Roberts, Lionel Broughton, Eileen Cowen, Jack Lawton, Sheena Corbett, Clem Griffiths, Derek Hillman, Susan, Hillman, Brian Edwards, Pam Jones, Paul Tolley.
Apologies: Chris Holman, Robin Richter, Ian Haxton, Cliff Dennis, Anne Clarke, Nicholas Wharton, Dennis Smith, Gillian Brown, Daphne Johnson, Gloria Lawley-Ord, Jan Dunseith & Tim Margerison
Correspondence:
A letter had been received from Iris Edwards thanking the Forum for the meal.
Minutes of the last meeting 25/11/05
These were read through and agreed as correct.
Matters Arising:
All matters arising from the last meeting were considered to be covered by the day’s agenda.
Committee Report:
The Committee met on the 9th November. David welcomed new members and reiterated that the Committee decides on future direction and policy of the Forum, what needs to be done and then puts it to the Forum to implement.
It was agreed that future presentations to the Forum would be agreed and organised by the Committee.
Items / topics for future meetings were agreed.
The proposed Agenda and format for the Forum meeting was agreed.
Jack Lawton raised the issue regarding the future direction of the Forum and the dissolution of the Disability Support Group.
Jack stated that the priorities that the Forum have identified are clear but that there are other areas that the Forum should be able to take up and respond to should its membership want it to.
Dissolution of the Disability Support Group: Jack clarified that it had been intended that this group would have taken the position of a Disability Theme Group within the Local Partnership however due to the failing of the process of the Local Partnership it is considered that the Rugby Disability Forum undertake this role of liaising with agencies and strategy via the committee meetings of the Forum held at the Town Hall.
John Burrell reminded the Forum that whilst the Committee are now arranging the presentations for future meetings that any member of the Forum can request a presentation from any agency or individual through the committee.
Social Function:
This was a roaring success! A very positive evening and everyone enjoyed it.
David stated that the meal does use some of the Forum’s funds to subsidise the cost of some individual’s meals so in considering whether to make the meal an annual event, members need to take this into consideration.
Steve Bunyan has been elected onto the boards of both the Rugby CVS and Council of Disabled People Warwickshire & Coventry.
Website:
Paul updated the Forum that the Forum Website www.rugbydisabilityforum.org is fully functional and that David Foster, Jack Lawton, Andrew Cowan and Steve Bunyan are all taking part in training on how to administrate and alter the site so that it can be kept fully up to date.
The Wireless Broadband connection at Hamilton House still needs some tweaking in order for the Forum Laptop to be able to broadcast to members with Internet access live from each of the meetings.
The Disability Debate
This event had originally been planned for the 9th December but has now been rescheduled to:
Wednesday 22nd February 2006 @ 7pm to be held at the Salvation Army in Bennfield Road
David urged all Forum members to attend.
Taxi’s
Some members are having extreme difficulty in getting reliable accessible taxis. The main accessible taxi firm that is well known in Rugby is ‘Busy Cabs’ but Jack has sourced a list of other taxi’s that are allegedly accessible (see below).
Busy Cabs 01788 575757
Brian Brazier 0776 301 3427
Farakh Nawaz 0795 630 5375
Malik Farooq 0781 416 6738
Presentation on ‘ServiceCall’ by David Walker
Service Call is part of a company called Autochair which David set up following becoming a disabled person himself 30 years ago. David set up ServiceCall due to the amount of travelling that he had to do. The product can be used in any centre, shop or any outlet.
David demonstrated how the product works which is installed in 1400 petrol stations nationwide and many national banks and large supermarkets.
A newsletter is sent out to all of its members who are the individual disabled people owners of a ServiceCall transmitter. The next edition of the newsletter will concentrate on getting chemists and local councils to install ServiceCall receivers.
The ServiceCall website www.service-call.net lists all of the places that have installed receivers in the UK.
Jack Lawton highlighted that Rugby is a prime area where many businesses would benefit from installing this system.
David is setting up a system that will hopefully support Blind people. The system is essentially the same as the ServiceCall system but will alert the service provider that a Blind Person wishes to access their service.
Pam mentioned that whilst in a section of a cinema she found herself stranded within one of their corridors due to their heavy fire doors.
ACTION: John Burrell will go out and meet with the Cinema.
David reminded all at the Forum that as John Burrell is the Access Officer and the Building Controls Officer for Rugby Borough Council that he needs to be informed of any such issues.
John can be contacted on 01788 533533 or by e-mail john.burrell@rugby.gov.uk
Service Call will support any organisation that wishes to promote the service locally by donating funds to cover postage etc.
David highlighted that a Community Transport scheme could be a mechanism for disabled people to travel around.
AOB
Coventry & Warwickshire Community Safety Scheme – some members have already used this and have had good results.
Next Meeting: Tuesday 20th December 2005 @ 10 am to be held at Hamilton House