Northern Rail and Bradford Council officers have been shown the dangers for disabled people of crossing a railway station.

Wheelchair user Mark Deveney met the officials with other members of the Joint Transport Working Group to show them the difficulty of accessing Steeton and Silsden Railway Station.

Disabled access to the station has been heavily criticised after it emerged that wheelchair and pushchair users had busy roads to cross and steep inclines to climb if they wanted to access the Keighley and Bradford-bound platform from the disabled allocation of the car park.

The Keighley News highlighted the disabled access issue almost a year ago.

Member of the working group, ward councillor Andrew Mallinson, said the meeting had been very illustrative.

He said: “Mark came with us and we said to a Bradford Council disabled access officer and a representative from Northern Rail, ‘right, how would he get across to the platform from here’ and showed them the difficulties, so that created more understanding about access issues to the station. Both ways you can go are extremely dangerous because of the inclines involved on the routes.”

A flight of 40 steps prevents wheelchair-reliant people from crossing from one platform to the other and forces them instead over four roads and a roundabout, which Cllr Mallinson says is unacceptable.

He added: “Illustrating the difficulties was more relevant and when we tried to do it, cars that were parked legally were blocking the pavement so we couldn’t get past.

“That highlighted the issue that the car park is full to capacity and more room needs to be made. But Northern Rail pointed out that the train was also full to capacity, so more spaces would mean more carriages so it is a bit of a chicken and egg situation as to what to try and get first.”

Cllr Mallinson said the idea of putting a turning circle in the main car park so that disabled users could be dropped off was met with enthusiasm but funding was an issue.

He said another meeting would be held in Keighley next week to further discuss the issue and investigate ways for Metro and Northern Rail to access funding for the project.

See Commuters to be quizzed, page 12