Coventry City Council is to spend £500,000 on improving disabled access to its public buildings.

The Finance Policy Team yesterday agreed to back a three-year programme which will see around 150 buildings opened up to disabled people.

The improvement programme, which includes a £30,000 audit to target and plan the alterations, started last year and over £100,000 of work is nearly completed.

Roger Hughes, leader of the council’s social justice team, said the improvements ranged greatly in scale.

"The audit will not just identify work that needs doing, but will also produce all the necessary architects’ plans to allow it to be carried out.

"There is money out of the council’s central funds as a result of a decision made at budget setting, and the finance policy team has added an extra £100,000.

"The work will, we very much hope, be on-going and carry on past three years. The only reason we have said three years is because that is the length of time we know what money the government will allow us to spend.

"There are a great number of jobs that have been done and need doing. They may vary from a sign being fitted to a lift being installed.

"We have liased with disabled people. We discussed our plans with representatives last July and will be doing the same again shortly. I am sure people would like the improvements done quicker, and so would we all, but this sort of work does take time."

The council owns over 500 buildings but those designated as "open to the public" include libraries, housing offices, public toilets and those parts of schools available for community use.

Around £1 million needs to be spent to on access improvements by 2004 to meet the standards demanded by the Disabled Discrimination Act.

The largest scheme scheduled for the year starting in April, is a lift for the Register Office, which will cost around £30,000.

Laurence Arnold, chairman of Coventry Council of Disabled People, welcomed the improvements – but claimed the city council would have saved money if it had listened to his group.

He said:

"It is very necessary to spend this money on improving access but the work would have been far cheaper if the council had listened when we started campaigning years ago.

"These improvements are necessary to meet legislation, not being done out of the goodness of the council’s heart."