Our Response to Merton Council’s draft Walking and Cycling Strategy

What We Would Like the Council to Consider

We are pleased to see that the draft Strategy:

makes several references to accessibility and inclusivity;
highlights the Council’s engagement with our organisation;
includes, in Action 2, ‘seating and rest areas’, as this is essential for many people, yet is all too often left out of discussions about active travel.

We would like the Council to consider making four changes, two of which are highlighted below:

1. Whilst we acknowledge the statement that ‘For the purposes of this Strategy, references to pedestrians and walking also incorporates those wheeling, which includes those using mobility equipment, including self-propelled wheelchairs, powered wheelchairs and mobility scooters’ (p.7), we feel strongly that renaming the Strategy either the ‘Walking, Wheeling and Cycling Strategy’ or the ‘Walking, Cycling and Wheeling Strategy’ would send a much clearer and more powerful message to those who live, work and study in Merton that the Council is committed fully to accessibility and inclusivity. Realistically, the statement quoted above is a detail that a lot of people will not end up encountering. Hence, a title that spells out what the Strategy is about is imperative.

2. On p.12, the phrase ‘1 in 7 residents report that they have a disability’ is used, which is language that attributes disability to an individual, not to society, and is, therefore, arguably outdated. For context, there is a difference between the Social Model of Disability and the Medical Model of Disability. The latter focuses on how a physical or mental impairment or health condition limits an individual. It seeks to ‘cure’ or ‘fix’ people. The former does not deny that an impairment or health condition impacts an individual. However, its central tenet is that this is not in itself disabling, and that what disables people are social barriers created by, for example, the design of a built environment, the way that a public service works, a policy, a person’s attitude, and so on.

You can read our full response here.