Access Network meeting

A network meeting of Kildare Access Association was held recently in Kilcullen Parish Centre. 

The Association is a network of all the Disability Access Groups currently operating in County Kildare. Access groups represented on the day were Athy Access Group; Kilcullen Access Group; Newbridge Access Group and Naas Area Access Strategy. We also have a representative from Moore Abbey, Monasterevin as the Monasterevin Access Group is not operating at present. 

Anne Marie Conneely of Kildare County Council Community & Enterprise attended to brief the groups on a Consultation Day organised for March 22, where each head of section in the Council will be available to meet with service users around the topic of disability access.  
 
The primary aim of the morning was to have an opportunity for the groups to meet and  share information on the work of each group over the past year.  It also enabled groups to identify issues of collective concern and agreed a strategy for addressing such issues over the following months. Issues which many of the groups identified were as follows:

- Access to disability toilets - both public and within  
   services,
- Access to public transport - especially through the rail
   network.
- Access to disabled parking bays and the lack of policing  
  re misuse of existing parking bays.   
 
 A lovely lunch was provided by Kilcullen's Copper Kettle.
 
The next KAA network meeting is planned for September 18th 2006 in Kilcullen Parish Centre (due to its excellent disability access). 

Anne Daly.