Lifts out of action, disabled supporters

[knuckles]

I waited in the queue over 30 minutes to get into the stadium today, the lift I normally use has been closed for refurbishment (you'd think that should have been done during the closed season), I had to get around to entrance D, the lift there can only take 6 people at a time I was told by the lift operator. The queue was huge with well over 200 disabled people, some in wheelchairs having to wait for ages to get in.

The security company just held there hands up and said that they couldn't do anything about it, which is understandable, although some of them were getting a hard time! I spoke to someone from City called Matt who had come to see what the hold up was in the queue, he said "I'll come back in a minute" - that was the last we saw of that guy.

Anyway I could go on, but I'd be interested to hear if any other disabled people or their carers had a bad experience like I and many others had today and in the past? For a club the size of ours I don't know how they could get something so easy as getting people safely into the stadium so wrong.

 

[decmancity]

Sorry to hear of this mate, I hope you can get a complaint to the right person. I haven't seen it mentioned before so lets hope it was a one off.

 

[Eric Hitchmough]

I waited in the queue over 30 minutes to get into the stadium today, the lift I normally use has been closed for refurbishment (you'd think that should have been done during the closed season), I had to get around to entrance D, the lift there can only take 6 people at a time I was told by the lift operator. The queue was huge with well over 200 disabled people, some in wheelchairs having to wait for ages to get in.

The security company just held there hands up and said that they couldn't do anything about it, which is understandable, although some of them were getting a hard time! I spoke to someone from City called Matt who had come to see what the hold up was in the queue, he said "I'll come back in a minute" - that was the last we saw of that guy.

Anyway I could go on, but I'd be interested to hear if any other disabled people or their carers had a bad experience like I and many others had today and in the past? For a club the size of ours I don't know how they could get something so easy as getting people safely into the stadium so wrong.

Sorry to hear that mate. Not acceptable.
@Alex - City Matters one for you to raise?

 

[JRockBlues]

I waited in the queue over 30 minutes to get into the stadium today, the lift I normally use has been closed for refurbishment (you'd think that should have been done during the closed season), I had to get around to entrance D, the lift there can only take 6 people at a time I was told by the lift operator. The queue was huge with well over 200 disabled people, some in wheelchairs having to wait for ages to get in.

The security company just held there hands up and said that they couldn't do anything about it, which is understandable, although some of them were getting a hard time! I spoke to someone from City called Matt who had come to see what the hold up was in the queue, he said "I'll come back in a minute" - that was the last we saw of that guy.

Anyway I could go on, but I'd be interested to hear if any other disabled people or their carers had a bad experience like I and many others had today and in the past? For a club the size of ours I don't know how they could get something so easy as getting people safely into the stadium so wrong.

You might want to think about raising your concerns and the issues you had with the disabled fan rep for City Matters. Contact details can be found here.

 

[Stephen230]

Sounds an absolute shit show. And even if it was a one off, questions should still be answered as to what the fuck went on?

But I do have to say, this is not representative of “How the club treat disabled supporters” in my experience, generally speaking.

I’ve had nothing but good experiences with them and the access dept. have always been fantastic in my dealings with them.

 

[knuckles]

Sounds an absolute shit show. And even if it was a one off, questions should still be answered as to what the fuck went on?

But I do have to say, this is not representative of “How the club treat disabled supporters” in my experience, generally speaking.

I’ve had nothing but good experiences with them and the access dept. have always been fantastic in my dealings with them.

Thanks for the responses Blues, I've got to say my normal experience is ok, the lifts are often broken and they are excruciatingly slow! But overall I have a bit of a grumble, but like most people just get on with it. I'm lucky that I can slowly drag myself up stairs if needed, I'm up in the 3rd tier though so takes quite a while!

Just seems like this time the planning has been pretty poor with the lift refurb etc. Bit of a shite show outside and could perhaps have been avoided if the Club had planned things better, I would like to keep the title of the thread the same to get more views, feedback to the Club can only help to improve things.

 

[knuckles]

You might want to think about raising your concerns and the issues you had with the disabiled fan rep for City Matters. Contact details can be found here.

Thanks J

 

[RodneysMarsh]

I was in the queue today in block D. It was an absolute disgrace and City should really deal with this as a priority to ensure it never happens again. Hundreds of people waiting to get in, missing the start because City have not had a working lift for the disabled since the start of the season. To misquote Gandhi “the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.” C'mon City, sort it out for the next home game please!

 

[knuckles]

Neil Squire said - People with disabilities are the original, eternal minority - Not at my Club CTID

 

[Alex - City Matters]

Sorry to hear that mate. Not acceptable.
@Alex - City Matters one for you to raise?

Thanks for flagging this. I had been speaking with Mark Todd and Howard Cohen (our old and new Disabled Fans representatives) and the Club as something similar had happened against Brentford. Apparently the Club had put something in place for Sunday, but evidently it didn’t really work. I’ll get in touch with them both now to touch base about Arsenal.