The Ministry of Development and Infrastructure has organized today the first Information Day in which the Federation of Municipalities collaborated, and more than 60 people have participated.
The local councils have a period of 5 years for the final approval of their Accessibility Plans
The Community advises the municipalities of the Region of Murcia to prepare their Accessibility Plans, which aim to gradually adapt their public spaces, buildings, transport, communication and goods and services available to the public, to the accessibility conditions of all people.
Accessibility Plans are one of the new features included in the Universal Accessibility Regulations of the Region, approved last September. “A regulation with which the regional government wants to make equal opportunities and universal accessibility effective for all people, guaranteeing the non-discriminatory, independent and safe use of the environments and of the goods, products and services of society.”
This was explained by the Regional Minister for Public Works and Infrastructure, Jorge García Montoro, at the first Information Day on Accessibility Plans held at the Regional Ministry, aimed at all the municipalities in the Region and attended by the President of the Federation of Municipalities, Víctor Manuel López, and the President of Cermi, Pedro Martínez.
“Municipalities have a period of 5 years to approve their accessibility plans, which will be reviewed every 4 years. The regional government's intention is to make the Region of Murcia a more accessible community by eliminating all kinds of barriers, and thus improve the lives of any person regardless of their abilities,” said the head of Public Works.
For his part, the representative of the mayors of the region, López Abenza, said that, "municipal councillors have an innate ability in the exercise of our responsibility as political representatives to make all our infrastructures accessible, therefore we want to achieve this goal in record time."
Around 60 people attended the event, including municipal representatives, councillors, technicians related to the application of the aforementioned decree, associations for the disabled and professional associations. The Alcantarilla City Council, through the Councillor for Economic Development and European Projects, José Antonio López Olmedo, explained the municipality's recent experience with its accessibility plan.
Accessibility Plans
Local governments must prepare, approve and implement their action plans on accessibility in their respective areas of application and must allocate budgetary allocations for their implementation.
The Regional Advisory Council on Universal Accessibility of the Region of Murcia will be the consultative and participatory body on accessibility and the one that will approve the plans of each municipality.
The content of the accessibility plans will define the scope of application, citizen participation, the identification of deficiencies and obstacles existing in urbanized public spaces and in buildings, whether of a physical, sensorial or cognitive nature, the analysis of pedestrian mobility, etc.
Standard solutions will also be sought, which will include typical actions that can be applied in repetitive situations. And singular solutions will be sought, which will include those public spaces or areas of buildings that present a particular difficulty.
