Meeting of the Parliament 25 September 2014
Yes, indeed. We are familiar with Mr Robertson’s work in this area and with his bill. When we are dealing with private land, we need the owners of the facility to police use of the spaces. That is a well-made point.
There are issues with buses, especially in rural areas. With regard to trains, Chic Brodie referred to First ScotRail’s record on booking travel assistance in advance, and pointed out that it has reduced the notice period from 24 hours to four hours. That is an important step forward, but there is more that can be done.
The Gleneagles station has just opened. People who are attending the Ryder cup will be making use of it and will find that it is very friendly towards people with disabilities, as a result of the new lifts and so on that have been installed.
Many members—Jenny Marra, Nanette Milne and others—referred to the problem with Waverley station. There is a genuine issue with regard to the removal of vehicular access to the heart of the station. It always seemed to me that there did not seem to be a particular problem with having taxis there. Quite apart from the issue of access for people with disabilities, during the festival period, we saw tourists having to queue outside in the rain to get taxis; previously, they would be inside and under cover. I urge the minister to do what he can to engage with Network Rail and Waverley’s management to see whether there is anything that can be done to improve that situation.
Nigel Don made some thoughtful comments about transport more generally.
Patricia Ferguson talked about heritage. In dealing with Historic Scotland, we need to recognise that some buildings simply cannot be adapted because they would lose their historic nature. Nevertheless, a lot is being done and I was interested to hear her comments about the benefit that access statements provide.
Jamie Hepburn and Mark McDonald mentioned accessibility of public toilets, which is an important subject. Public toilets are important not just for people with disabilities, but for people who are elderly or who have young children, as I am sure the minister knows. However, over the past two decades we have seen a serious reduction in the availability of public toilets in Scotland. During the summer, we were on holiday in Northern Ireland. We stayed in Portrush, which is a small seaside town, but the provision of public toilets there is far above what we would have found in an equivalent town in Scotland. The toilets were accessible, clean and well maintained.
We know that the level of public spending is higher in Northern Ireland than in Scotland, but there is a real issue here. If we are trying to make Scotland an attractive place to visit, not just for people with disabilities but for everybody, including families and the elderly, we need to look again at public toilet provision. A lot of councils have gone down the road of comfort schemes, whereby they have a relationship with a local provider. Often, however, the shop, hotel, bar or restaurant that provides the toilets will close or change and no alternative facility is made available. For the sake of tourism, we need to look at that.
I see that the Presiding Officer is waving at me to finish.
Attitudes are very important. Hostile, inappropriate or patronising behaviour to people with disabilities by those who provide services is off-putting and detrimental.
I close by going back to the minister’s point that four out of five people with disabilities do not enjoy a holiday. That is not acceptable—we have to change that.
I support the motion and Jenny Marra’s amendment.
16:42