[David Clemmet]

Craig

I enjoyed your review of the show as it brought back memories of why as people with disabilities my late friend and I stopped attending the show following the 2017 show. The aisles issue was patchy- in some places there were no problems, in others a crowd of two or more completely blocked the aisle. At the time I last attended the show I was using a 3 wheeled walking aid and could only progress down certain aisle by reducing its width to minimum, I am now a wheelchair user and would not contemplate attending the show. As a former show organiser (my late friend and I organised the Stockton Shows between 1981 to 2008) I appreciate Mike’s point about the need to fund overheads via trader fees but I am sure given careful thought aisle widths could be made more consistent without reducing trader numbers although I suspect some trader relocation may be needed.

I agree that the lifts give good access to all the upper floors assuming the dedicated disabled lift is used but I had never found  a disabled person’s toilet – I was always nervous of using the main toilet on the ground floor as its floor was often slippy.

Parking may be plentiful for regular car drivers but not so for cars with disabled drivers or passengers – the small disabled parking is quite a distance from the show entrance and other than the catering area I never found anywhere to sit down and rest.

I much prefer to attend the Battleground show held in Stockton every November where none of the points I raise above occur

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