Wilton Town councillor resigns due to lack of accessibility

Alexandra Boyd, 53, worked as a Wilton Town Councillor for almost four years until she resigned in October as she felt meetings at the council chambers lacked accessibility.

As an electric wheelchair user, Alexandra needs to use a lift to get upstairs because she is unable to stand. A stair lift is available in the Wilton Council Chambers, but it is not big enough for Alexandra’s chair and has no security anchoring.

Until recently, she was able to leave her wheelchair for short periods but this would cause her a great deal of pain.

She said: “Every time I came home from council meetings, I was sitting at home and I was crying. For two days in a row, I would have the knock on effect of the pain.”

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Her husband would have to help her to get up the stairlift to the meetings and to a chair, which Alexandra said are very uncomfortable.

In the last couple of months, Alexandra has found she is no longer able to stand and therefore a stairlift that fits her chair is essential for her to attend the meetings.

In emails seen by the Journal, she suggested to the council that the venue for meetings be changed to make it more accessible for herself and members of the public.

In response, Wilton Town Council (WTC) advised her to bring a pillow for the ‘uncomfortable’ chairs and also stated that the WTC chamber “is accessible via a lift and has therefore met the EA requirement.”

Alexandra has resigned due to a lack of accessibility at Wilton Town Council meetings (Image: Newsquest) Alexandra found the response “degrading” and felt obliged to resign as a councillor – a job she loved.

She said: “I really enjoyed being a councillor. I live in a social part of this estate in social housing and these kind of people who are on lower income just like my family, you know, before I became a councillor, I would feel quite uncomfortable speaking to someone in a council position because I thought that they were someone in power so you don’t talk about your problems, you don’t complain really.

“I have won the trust of quite a few people in Wilton.”

Alexandra is not only concerned about her own access but for members of the public who may struggle to attend the meetings – which are public – due to their own requirements.

She said: “These are public meetings, there should be transparency, everybody should be allowed and able to access meetings. It’s the public’s money we’re dealing with – not our money.

“I always really loved doing that job and to be quite honest I thought we were a really good band working together and I think that’s sort of upset me quite a bit because I have not heard from some of them at all.”

Wilton Town Council has been contacted for comment.