Sunday 20 July 2014

Dundee House disabled access - not working again!

Back in May, Dundee City Council promised me to ensure a permanent solution to the broken electronic doors at its headquarters will be implemented by the end of the month.

As I indicated at the time :

“… the electronic doors at Dundee House have been out of action very regularly recently and it’s a real difficulty in particular for elderly people and people with disabilities as the manual doors are quite heavy and not that easy to operate.   It is extremely difficult for someone with a pram or in a mobility scooter or wheelchair to use the manual doors.”

Repairs were duly carried out – but guess what? – I received a concern last Friday that they are again broken!

I contacted the City Council’s Director of City Development, who advised :

"I am advised by maintenance staff that the pneumatic overhead closer has been broken as a consequence of visitors/customers misusing the door - pushing instead of pulling. A replacement part has been ordered.
You will perhaps have noted that, in response to feed-back, we have changed and simplified the signage so that users can more clearly read the push/pull notices. Despite this step we are again at the mercy of mis-use."

I do think the City Council is fast approaching a situation where it considers replacement of the doors or their mechanism as the frequency of breakdown is concerning.