Ramp Entrance to new houses

[Scarybiscuits03]

I dont understand all the upset over access ramps. I have one and it was a godsend when moving in (and out). What harm do they do apart from making your property more accessible to everyone and everything? As for the widened doorways - even better, most sofas/fridgefreezers wouldn't go through the old fashioned ones!..........What's the big deal? Surely if a member of your family became disabled you would appreeciate it then....

[Scarybiscuits03]

Why would I do that? The cost of the ramp is irrelevant as is the ramp until I or my family are disabled.

So if one of your family became disabled then you would expect every other member that owned a property to go all out and have a ramp installed? I would find that more of an inconvenience than having one in the first place.......

[david]

I dont understand all the upset over access ramps. I have one and it was a godsend when moving in (and out). What harm do they do apart from making your property more accessible to everyone and everything? As for the widened doorways - even better, most sofas/fridgefreezers wouldn't go through the old fashioned ones!..........What's the big deal? Surely if a member of your family became disabled you would appreeciate it then....

What sort of price did you pay for the ramp

[annemarie482]

the cost isn't seperatly priced david, when you approach a builder with your kit in mind when they price to wind and watertight it (blocks and roof included) the ramp price is included as it's considered as standard fitting.

[david]

it's the whole green thing!
you have to mark on your house plans where the washing lines going to prove you'll have one, and the indoor one for rainy days! lol

Indoor washing lines for rainy days-your kidding right!!

[annemarie482]

fraid not!
it's just an area of roofspace in your utility were you "could" hang a roof drying rack!
crazy i know!

[david]

fraid not!
it's just an area of roofspace in your utility were you "could" hang a roof drying rack!
crazy i know!

U could also go for a disabled pee at the riverside in Thurso if their was proper access like a key from the Tourist Info Office. Closed on Sundays. Unbelievable.

[ducati]

I can almost guarantee that a ramp you can install in your new build for £200 will cost the council £5000 to retrofit

After a lengthy and costly tender process of course

[Kevin Milkins]

Is this a local facility Kevin or is this a nation wide scheme ?, I ask as I am registered disabled and no one has offered/suggested getting a key.

I'm not sure how you would go about getting a key to start with, but I replaced the one my Mother-In-Law lost from this company,
Trade Economy Radar Keys. Pack of 50

From only: £49.94 Ex VAT
or £1.00 per key

[Metalattakk]

I'm not sure how you would go about getting a key to start with, but I replaced the one my Mother-In-Law lost from this company,
Trade Economy Radar Keys. Pack of 50

From only: £49.94 Ex VAT
or £1.00 per key

The wife is a member of the RADAR Key Scheme, and she says the key was free, but the book that tells you where all the public toilets are cost a tenner. Seems it's now £15.

Oh, and our newly built house had to have ramp access to at least one door. There was no option to 'save money' by having steps instead. We pushed the boat out and had a ramp installed to both doors (the back door ramp is even twice as wide). Didn't cost us any extra. One of the better decisions the wife made for me.

[Aaldtimer]

"Their regulations" not ours then? no we would have been more sensible.

No David, they are not "their's" or "our's", they are just Regulations for the benefit of all.

[northener]

Building regs are there for a reason, granted, however the same council who enforce the same regs as you allude to fail to open an office where the disabled can access a toilet-see previous posts.

Fair comment, but you have to start with access issues somewhere. New builds are the obvious answer.

TBH, there's a lot of jumping up and down over not very much going on in this thread.

At the end of the day, the ramp isn't there for the able-bodied at present, it's there to provide access for the less able-bodied at a future date. The same reasoning is behind having partially empty disabled parking bays. There will always be those who cannot see the point (see previous threads on here).
Comments about 'spoiling' the lines of the house don't really wash in many cases, (not a personal dig at anyone, before someone starts to get all indignant at me) given the absolute plague of featureless, soul-less, thoughtless, knocked-out, drab grey boxes that now infest our landscape in Caithness. I've never seen so many bloody ugly new builds in all my life.
A ramp is hardly going to convert them into shining beacons of harmony in a landscape.....

And as (Ducati?) said, retro fitting willl be a damn sight more expensive than taking up a miniscule percentage of a new-build budget. And who would the house owners be expecting to fund the retro fit?


Answers on a postcard to:

The Blatantly Obvious Answer
PO Box 1
Heilan' Cooncil.


Cough up and move on, folks.

[orkneycadian]

Long past time that things got back to basics and let people be responsible for their own circumstances.

Exactly. It was not so many years ago here in Orkney that a number of community centres were going to have to be closed because they were not "disabled access compliant". So 98% or thereabouts of the community were going to lose the use of their long standing facility, so that the other 2% could make more use of it. I remember some people who are wheelchair bound saying that the whole saga was a great embrassment to them. Fortunately, common sense prevailed and reprieves were given against compulsory closures, with centres being given until their next revamp before the measures had to be introduced.

The same was going to happen top BBC Radio Orkney at one point as well. As the studio was up the stairs, they were told they would have to relocate or close down. Despite them saying they had no problem in taking their recording equipment out of teh studios to interview anyone in a wheelchair. The very fact you couldn't access the studios in a wheelchair caused all the fun.

Theres a cafe in Kirkwall where all the sandwiches, sausage rolls etc that you help yourself to has the lowest shelf about shin height, and the heighest shelf about waist height. Presumably so folk in wheelchairs can help themselves. I am not sure, I have never seen anyone in wheelchairs in there. What I have seen however is all the able bodied folk virtually on their hands and knees to see whats on offer on all the shelves.

Finally, I know of quite a lot of places in Orkney that have spent 10's of thousands on lifts and the like to be disabled compliant, but in 6 years or more, they have never been used once, because they are the type of establishment that doesn't have wheelchair bound visitors. Maybe someday they might, but in 6 years, there has not been a single one. It does beg the question how wise it is spending 10's of thousands on a lift that might get used once every 10 years.

Whilst wheelchair users should not be expressly blocked from access, some perspective is required, especially when 10's of thousands of pounds are to be spent on measures that might not be used.

[Phill]

The cost of the ramp is irrelevant as is the ramp until I or my family are disabled.

Well it must be relevant:

What sort of price did you pay for the ramp

On discussing ours with the builder he shrugs and said not much, couple of hundred quid. The cost, to them, at original building point is negligible. As ducati has pointed out the retro fit will be a lot more.
Also if you sell your house you will need to fit the ramp.

By the same logic I saved a few bob by not fitting my smoke & heat alarms as I do not intend to set fire to my house, but if I do I can fit them then.

[_Ju_]

It would cost less than half the price to install a disabled entrance in a new build than to come back and do it later and in some cases probably less than that.

How dare you point out something obvious and so "common sensical" on here. There is no room for these qualities on this board!!!!

[donss]

The point here though is not about the common sense, or morality, or the initial outlay (£'s): it's about the choice of someone who is building and paying for the new house to choose what they want included, or not included in a the house or other biulding, (so long as not a public facility) that they choose to build......

It should not be the (sic) local councils remit to enforce upon the developer, that they pay for and include facilities that they do not need, nor want. Simples.....

[theone]

The point here though is not about the common sense, or morality, or the initial outlay (£'s): it's about the choice of someone who is building and paying for the new house to choose what they want included, or not included in a the house or other biulding, (so long as not a public facility) that they choose to build......

It should not be the (sic) local councils remit to enforce upon the developer, that they pay for and include facilities that they do not need, nor want. Simples.....

I understand that that is the argument most people against the ramps believe in.

But where do you draw the line? Is it only for accessibility issues?

I grew up in a Dounreay house that didn't have a washbasin in the downstairs toilet. That would not be allowed on a new build.

It also had wired fuses, and no RCD's on the socket ringmains. That would not be allowed nowadays.

There's other, simpler, regulations also, depth of foundations etc.

Should people be allowed to ignore these too?

[Phill]

It should not be the (sic) local councils remit to enforce upon the developer, that they pay for and include facilities that they do not need, nor want. Simples.....

As theone has already pointed out, where do you draw the line?

It is fine to assume that in the case of person 'A' building a house they want this, that and the other. But you need a 'Standard'. There has to be a certain point where a house is usable, in a safe manner, to as many as possible. And the big thing to remember is if & when we sell a house, it will be expected to meet standards for it's age.

I paid a small fortune for fancy smanshy UPVC, energy 'efficient' eco friendly, blah blah blah windows. Only to be instructed by the 'council' to cut holes in all the ones that opened, for ventilation!!!! But that was the standard and that is what we needed to do.

Look at these ramps another way. We're all living longer now, so they tell us. But we're all still fallible to various ills and disorders, potentially there are going to be more people requiring ramps into their homes in the future.
When your neighbour needs one in a few years, and they can't pay for it, your happy to pay for these out of your own money to be retro fitted at potentially 10 or 20 times the cost?

Out of a building cost of possibly £80,000 (? for starters) people are worried about £200!!!

[thebigman]

I'm not sure how you would go about getting a key to start with, but I replaced the one my Mother-In-Law lost from this company,
Trade Economy Radar Keys. Pack of 50

From only: £49.94 Ex VAT
or £1.00 per key

Give the Council Service Point a shout and they'll advise you.

[annemarie482]

talking of the planning deciding EVERYTHING about your house......
just recieved a letter today
(house is now 2 years old)
telling me our planning permission does not include landscaping! ie: my garden!!
of course the plot is ours, and on the planning etc,
but we now have to get planning of landscaping so we can have grass etc!!!!
so in submitting the new plans,
i have to mark every plant planted with a colour key code as to what type of plant/tree it is!!!
and it has to be something "natural" to our environment.
i was also told that they "suggest" i plant hedgerow all round as you need to have a "proper" barrier around your plot,a fence doesnt count!and i'm not allowed to plant anything within 3 metres from the road for visability.

have you ever heard the likes?!!!

tell you what council planning office......you wanna come decorate the house for me too eh!!!!!