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colinm
colinm Community member Posts: 3 Listener
myself  along with several others have been told by our housing association that we can no longer keep electric scooters wheel chairs in the building as now after 25 years they say its a fire hazzard. They say that they will provide nowhere else to keep them safe or be provide no charging points as the flats complex are to small despite we have a store for bicycles which are locked away with only 3/4 people out of 34 using bicycles and they also say they will not provide disabled parking bays which is annoying as we have 28 parking bays and only 8 residents owning vehicles. As we have a car park which is private they turn a blind eye and let shoppers and workers park despite have private residents parking only.
thanks colinm

Comments

  • colinm
    colinm Community member Posts: 3 Listener
    amendment...they will  not provide a safe place or charging point.sorry about my typing errors my hands are to arthritic and well my sight aint to good either
  • Debbie_Alumni
    Debbie_Alumni Community member Posts: 932 Pioneering
    Hello Colin,

    Thanks for your post. This is an issue which occasionally crops up here at the helpline.

    All housing providers should now have a Mobility Vehicle Policy so it's worth asking your housing association for a copy of their policy.

    This is a difficult area and there is some good practice guidance for social landlords available around Mobility Vehicles. The guidance was produced by erosh in Partnership with HouseMark and it is available to view in the following link http://www.housemark.co.uk/hmresour.nsf/lookup/Dealing_with_mobility_vehicles.pdf/$File/Dealing_with_mobility_vehicles.pdf

    I hope that this guidance will help you to understand some of the reasons why your housing association suddenly seem to be adopting a new policy of not allowing residents to store their mobility scooters in communal areas and why some aren't allowing these vehicles to be stored in separate storage.

    There are fire risks involved with the storing of mobility vehicles and this can invalidate building insurance and also poses a risk to life if there are obstructions in communal areas which prevent easy exit in an emergency.

    If you want to tell me who your housing association is I will look for their mobility vehicle policy for you. If you could also let me know which part of the country you live in, I'll look and see if there are any local support services which can help you talk to your housing association to see if you can reach a compromise.

    Best wishes
    Debbie

  • colinm
    colinm Community member Posts: 3 Listener
    Thank you for your reply. My housing association is knightstone Housing of Weston-super-Mare and I am from Taunton Somerset
  • Debbie_Alumni
    Debbie_Alumni Community member Posts: 932 Pioneering
    Hi Colinm,

    Sorry for the delay in replying! I checked out Knightstone Housing's website and found their Fire Safety leaflet which does talk about the storage of mobility scooters. You can find it on their leaflet by following this link http://www.knightstone.co.uk/media/367643/kne_5351-safety-documents_fire.pdf

    Did you manage to read the information in the links that I gave you in my last post? I hope that it has managed to provide some clarity on the issue.

    I still think it's worth getting some local advice to see if you can reach a compromise with the housing association about alternative storage. Legally there's probably not much that you can do but just to make sure, get some local advice. There's a service in Taunton that might be able to advise you, find out more on the following website. http://www.compassdisability.org.uk/


    Let us know how you get on :)

    Best wishes
    Debbie

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