Thanks for all your contributions to our play park survey last year. Based on the results, we are
focusing our initial efforts for accessibility on two areas – Lauderdale and Bleachingfield.
Bleachingfield play park (next to the library) is a key focus for us because it already has some great features: it’s a fully fenced area with a wheelchair-accessible surface, has blue-badge parking nearby and 24-access to a Changing Places toilet right next door in the library building. We are working with a charity called Play as One Scotland to establish what accessible equipment would work best here, and to help us plan and fundraise for it.
Lauderdale is another very popular play park and we have the support of East Lothian Council and Dunbar Community Council to make some improvements here, potentially including switching some of the woodchip ground-covering to a flat, rubber surface which should be much easier for wheelchairs, installing accessible equipment, and also perhaps creating a sensory trail elsewhere in the park. Dunbar Community Council has plans to install a children’s book barn here in the summer, and we are working with them to make this accessible to everyone.
So watch these spaces – and keep your comments coming if there are particular items that you
would find beneficial to include.
We are particularly keen to keep reminding ELC that Lauderdale needs an enclosed area and a suitable toilet if it is to work for all our children.
We have also been working with staff at the Bleachingfield Centre to improve the signage around the Changing Place toilet there, so that families know about it and can find it easily. There are some key improvements needed to this facility that we also need to work on – please be aware that if you are using it outwith the staffed hours of the centre, the emergency cord will not currently work as it is only connected to the janitor’s office, not to any external support.
We are still working with the Community Council and Enjoy Leisure to improve the provision of
accessible changing facilities at Dunbar Leisure Pool. This is going to be a very long term project unfortunately, as the Scottish Government has still not released its promised £10 million fund for Changing Places.
A final long-term project is providing access to our beautiful beaches, whether that be East Beach or Belhaven Bay. I know many of you already access the wonderful Wave Project, but it would be brilliant if even our wheelchair users could get to the water, and this is something we will also be working on with the Community Council and others.
If you have any other ideas for changes we can make to our local area that would make your lives
easier or better, do get in touch!
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