By Mike Macleod.

Firstly while I’ve knocked on a lot of doors, you don’t always get people in, and when I do speak to voters it tends to be about national issues.  However every so often you get people talking about local matters, and you realise – this doesn’t sound right.

The homes on Liberator Drive are energy-efficient and the residents generally seem to consider the estate a good place to live,  But in places there are no pavements whatever.  Given the large number of children on the estate, this must be a safety issue.  It must be asked why this was never picked up when Planning Permission was granted.

It should be mentioned that many of the tenants are of working age and have motor vehicles, so the roads are quite busy.

On looking into this further, if tenants want to persuade Orkney Islands Council to resolve this unsatisfactory situation, the best way may be to look at the rights of Disabled People, as they are set out in law.

In this day and age, it passes belief that residents have to ask for something so basic as a pavement outside their home.  I urge Orkney Islands Council to resolve this issue.

The Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004 state: 

“Every building must be designed and constructed in such a way that all occupants and visitors are provided with safe, convenient and unassisted means of access to the building.”  

While the Scottish Government ‘Housing for Varying Needs’ design guide specifies that pavements in most circumstances must have an unobstructed width of 1.8 metres.

The Equality Act 2010 places a Public Sector Equality Duty on the Council.  Developers and Councils must proactively ensure disabled tenants are not disadvantaged.

There may also be ‘Discrimination by Design’.  If a new development is built without proper pavement access, it could be legally challenged as ‘indirect discrimination’ on the basis that the design makes it harder for wheelchair users to live independently.  And if the Council approved a scheme that made it impossible for a disabled resident to leave their home safely, they can be held liable alongside the developer.

In his letter to Orkney Islands Council, Mr Macleod has also raised concerns over the failure to control weeds on footpaths in other areas of Kirkwall.

Mike Macleod, is the Scottish Labour & Scottish Co-operative Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Orkney in the Scottish Parliament elections to be held on Thursday 7 May.

Mr Macleod has written to Orkney Islands Council regarding the concerns raised by residents to him on the Liberator Drive/Liberator Close estate.