Aberdeenshire North Access Panel

Just had to highlight some excellent service from Emma’s Pet Fair. Demonstrating that it really isn’t that difficult to make your business fully accessible … regardless of the age of the building… as we so often hear given as a reason for poor accessibility. Well done Emma!

Honestly chuffed to say our accessibility ramp is now done and in store for customers to use ! 
 if you need to just give me a shout or phone the store in advance and I’ll get it out and ready for you 😊

Fantastic work from Blair Drummond Safari Park! ❤️

This is exactly the sort of information we’d love to see across the board. Something so simple, yet hugely important when it comes to reducing the anxiety involved in planning a trip

Aberdeenshire Council has now launched the consultation for its review of the Local Transport Strategy (LTS) to be developed in 2023. This new LTS will set out the Councils aims and aspirations for how people will travel and how to achieve this over the coming decade. Residents and stakeholders are being asked to consider several transportation themes and share their views on the main opportunities and challenges facing transport across Aberdeenshire. The outcomes from this consultation will be used to develop our new transport strategy. To achieve this residents are being asked to consider a number of transportation theme papers which are included in the attached consultation link. Topics range from walking, cycling and public transport, to car use, electric vehicle infrastructure, road safety and freight movements.

On the first page of the LTS consultation, you will find details of all the theme papers that you may read to make informed decisions. After answering questions “About You” and “your general views on transport” you then have the opportunity to select as many of the theme papers you feel are relevant to you and provide your feedback on their related questions.

PLEASE NOTE, THEME PAPERS MUST BE ANSWERED IN THE ORDER PRESENTED IN THE SURVEY - IT WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE TO GO BACK IN THE SURVEY.

This consultation will be live until June 23rd.

Please follow this link to the consultation:

Local Transport Strategy 2023 This Local Transport Strategy is possibly going to be the most ambitious, bold and far reaching of the Council's Local Transport Strategies to date. Developed against a backdrop of increasing global awareness of the issues associated with climate change, the

This is the type of complaint we often receive from members of the community who live with a disability - non blue badge holders parking in the disabled parking bays beside Argos in Peterhead. I thought it was very relevant to highlight this issue on our page

This is a common problem with these parking spaces and we work in partnership with the local authority to try to find a solution/ deterrent to this.

In this instance here, the driver of the car illegally parked in the blue badge space, (they were non blue badge holders), became verbally abusive to the member of the community when challenged.

Those living with disabilities and in receipt of a blue badge (which is chargeable - it is not free, as is the misconception), should not be having to be placed in situations where they are having to challenge people for the right to park in . Disabled parking spaces are provided to ensure ease of access for those who need it most. They are not designed for quick 5 min pick ups etc by those who don’t actually need them for their intended purpose.

I urge you to PLEASE think, and be considerate to the needs of those who actually need to use blue badges to retain some semblance of independence and normalcy in their lives.

*Photo sent in by a member of the community. I’m also led to understand that they’ve referred the driver of the parked car to Police Scotland*

📣 It’s Carers Week 2023!

Unpaid carers face huge challenges every day. It’s essential they receive greater recognition and support.

This Carers Week, stand in solidarity with the carers you know and every carer in the UK by saying I CARE:

Home | Carers Week You're amazing! Through us all coming together and sharing our support, we can help ensure carers are recognised and supported in their communities. Your story will be displayed shortly, once our team has approved it.

All too often we hear the words “But you don’t LOOK disabled”…

Welcome to the brand new page for the Aberdeenshire North Access Panel 😊 So excited to get this up and running, so that we can make everyone aware of what we as an Access Panel actually do.

So what is an Access Panel you might ask? Well, under the umbrella of Disability Equality Scotland, we are a group who volunteer our time to improve the accessibility of our local area for disabled people and make it more inclusive.

There are currently 35 Access Panels across Scotland as a while, from Shetland to Tweeddale, who give their time for free to improve access and inclusion.

Over the coming days, we’ll be populating our page with lots more information which we HOPE the local community within Aberdeenshire North will find useful.

We’d love it if you would give our page a follow, and invite as many of your friends and family to do the same.