We have created a new group dedicated to improving life for people with disabilities in Henfield, so that the village becomes a great place to live, work, and socialise in for all residents and visitors. Now called Access Henfield, we work under the auspices of the Henfield Community Partnership, and we are all volunteers.
Three of us have mobility issues ourselves, others have personal or family experience of the barriers facing people with different disabilities, and others have specialist professional knowledge gained through working in healthcare or health and safety. We are very new and still growing, and would welcome input from others in the community, especially those with varied experiences of disabilities of any type.
Our ambition is to help remove barriers in a positive and encouraging way, to enable people with disabilities (whether visible or hidden) to participate as fully as possible in every aspect of life in Henfield. We hope to encourage awareness, acceptance and consideration for all disabilities and to be a point of advice, information, support and referral to relevant organisations.
Our initial project has been focussed on mobility and accessibility issues (mobility scooters, wheelchairs and pushchairs) and visual and hearing impairments, and we are
in the process of seeking some solutions.
For example, we are currently investigating issues such as sufficient disabled parking spaces in the right locations; entry into and manoeuvrability around buildings; provision of disabled toilets; access to local services and shops, and levels of accessibility to participate in community activities.
Some solutions will require specialist input, but we have identified that there’s plenty we can all do to help, such as:
Keeping pavements and dropped kerbs clear for wheelchairs, buggies etc., by keeping hedges trimmed back away from the pavement (a legal requirement)
Parking considerately, avoiding parking on dropped kerbs and pavements
Bringing in wheelie bins soon after they have been emptied, to avoid obstructing pavements.
Since our first meeting in October 2024, we have already achieved a lot including:
Getting agreement from Horsham District Council to increase disabled parking in the Cooper’s Way car park.
Identifying an area where we hope to have an undercover area for mobility scooter parking.
Engaging with managers of public buildings and carrying out disability access assessments.
Our future aims include:
Identifying where dropped kerbs are needed, and where pavements and other areas create access problems, and liaising with West Sussex County Council and others regarding solutions.
Achieve better information and signposting for disabilities.
Encourage businesses and groups to include an accurate accessibility section on their websites.
Encourage integration of people with disabilities into existing local clubs and groups.
Work with Henfield Library and 4Sight to help people with visual impairments.
Some of these actions will inevitably have a cost. We aim to apply for grants through Henfield Community Partnership, but we also welcome support from individuals, groups and companies.
Further help is still needed, and we’re looking for volunteers who can help with managing correspondence, creating social media content, technical expertise for getting appropriate hearing systems into buildings, and collecting useful information on disabilities and on sources of help and support. Please get in contact if you can help us.
Once our website is up and running, we will publish a survey which will help to highlight access issues within Henfield. We hope the whole community will participate and help us to make Henfield accessible for everyone.
Sara Williams, Access Henfield
