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FC Supporters with disabilities meeting to be held Saturday October 29th at Broadhurst Park at 1pm

FC Supporters with disabilities meeting to be held Saturday October 29th at Broadhurst Park at 1pmFC United supporter Roy Williamson has arranged a meeting for supporters with disabilities prior to the Gloucester game on the 29th of October.

FC United supporter Roy Williamson has arranged a meeting for supporters with disabilities prior to the Gloucester game on the 29th of October. The information from Roy below was posted on the members’ forum and is being made available now to all supporters.

"I have been asking about a meeting like this for the last eighteen months or so. In part, the delay has been because the club has been speaking to national bodies such as NADS and when we previously discussed holding a meeting the plan seemed to be to feed in information about experiences and expertise elsewhere.

I have asked if we have details of these contacts but they haven’t been found yet so, thinking that this is long overdue, I have spoken to board members and others and the above meeting has been arranged.

Now, I am interested in this obviously but I have no expert knowledge.

There are of course many people nationally who do have the knowledge including detailed understanding of legislation, however we have concluded that the first stage is to hear the views of our own supporters with disabilites around their match day experiences at Broadhurst Park.

Following this we can marry the views of our supporters with those of supporters nationally. I have also been told that the board are keen to hear these views and act on them if they can. So, in short, everyone seems positive about us moving this forward.

The meeting, on Saturday 29th October, will begin at 1pm and probably last for an hour. I am aware some people have match day duties so I do not want to interfere with those. I will take notes so that we can gain a thorough understanding of experiences so far and where we might make improvements. The notes will go to the board and subsequently members.

We envisage that we might look at: travel/car parking, reception, disabled areas in the ground, stewarding, facilities and any other issue that people feel is relevant. A summary of the matchday experience in fact.

This is an open invitation to supporters who have a disability, their helpers, family members, friends and anyone with an interest in this initiative. For the future I hope that we can develop a group to take this forward but we can discuss this at the meeting.

For the moment I feel it is one step at a time. I have discussed this with fellow members who have expertise in one area or another and some will hopefully be able to attend.

If you plan to come to it would be useful for you to let me know via Jane at the ground or the office. Please pass this information around, I would like as many people to attend as possible. If you feel you can help in any way you will be welcome."

Thanks

Roy



First Posted ~ 15:37 Mon 3 Oct 2016
News ID ~ 7070
Last Updated ~ 16:00 Fri 19 Feb 2021