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Councillor accused of bid to discredit campaign for blind
Anna Davis, Education Correspondent28 May 2009
A politician has been accused of trying to discredit a demonstration held to highlight blind people's road safety fears.
Kensington and Chelsea council's deputy leader Daniel Moylan sent an email suggesting one of the people on the rally was pretending to be blind.
Guide Dogs for the Blind, which organised the protest march, called the accusation a “disgraceful and ludicrous” attempt to discredit its campaign against plans to remove kerbs and create a “shared street” on a busy road. Tom Pey, Guide Dogs director of external affairs, said: “To think that Guide Dogs — a charity that has 75 years experience helping blind and partially sighted people to get about safely and independently — would use a fake' blind person is ludicrous.
“These remarks were obviously made to try and undermine us, our work, and the campaign.”
The row broke out after Guide Dogs organised a demonstration for blind people and supporters outside the Kensington and Chelsea council offices on 15 May.
It was organised as part of the charity's national “Say NO to shared streets” campaign and was supported by the West London Residents Association to highlight concerns blind people have over plans to remove kerbs from Exhibition Road in south Kensington.
Mr Moylan sent an email to Gordon Taylor of the residents' association saying: “It has been reliably claimed that at least one of the blind' people at your demonstration this week (a man carrying a white stick and wearing sun-glasses) was a perfectly sighted local resident well known to the council.”
Mr Taylor said: “I was absolutely shocked when I got the email. It was absolutely absurd.”
The email was copied to Kensington and Chelsea councillor Nicholas Paget-Brown, and Kulveer Ranger, the Mayor of London's director of transport policy.
Mr Moylan, a Conservative councillor, denied making any allegations about the charity.
He said: “I was reporting something that was reliably told to me. I cannot be responsible for saying whose demonstration it was. I was aware it was a WLRA demonstration supported by the Taxpayers' Alliance.
“Guide Dogs have been misinformed. It was private correspondence.”
A spokesman for Guide Dogs insisted the comments were an attack on the charity.
Reader views (8)
This is ridiculous but shows how low some people will stoop. I was at the demo. There was no need to produce "fake" blind people. We know lots of real ones!
- M, London, 30/05/2009 09:44
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Quite dispicable
- William, Red Hill UK, 28/05/2009 12:47
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Councillor Moylan's feeble and practically meaningless attempt to discredit a demonstration about road safety issues for the visually impaired, by suggesting that one of the participants involved in that protest was not visually impaired, is disingenuous in the extreme. One does not have to be blind to be able to understand the plight of those who live with that condition day in and day out.
It is irrelevant who organised the demonstration in question. As the Deputy Leader of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Councillor Moylan should have seen this protest as being in the interests of responsible citizenship. I am surprised that Councillor Moylan could not find something more intelligent to say. I can only conclude that Councillor Moylan thinks that only blind people are entitled to campaign or complain about their life difficulties.
Perhaps, Councillor Moylan should consider his position regarding his continued service on the Board of Transport for London. TFL have an obligation to consider road safety issues for the visually impaired.
- Shane Carter, Chelsea, London., 28/05/2009 12:35
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Cllr Moylan is the same politician who ridiculed a local protest when a petition containing 3000 signatures was handed in at the Town Hall. He wrote emails saying that "it was stunt, the envelope purporting to contain the petition was empty".
Democracy died many years ago in Kensington and Chelsea.....
- Donald Cameron, london, 28/05/2009 12:25
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Typical politician - smear the opposition.
- David Burns, Beckenham, 28/05/2009 12:09
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This is typical of the Leadership at Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall. Determined to implement their pet projects (in this case spending £42 million of tax payers money to create shared space in Exhibition Rd for cars and the blind)and turning a blind eye to public opinion. When protest surfaces, the local residents repeatedly experience a pattern of "private" emails that belittle protestors, ridicule them, and spread false and misleading stories like this one.
- Donald Cameron, london, 28/05/2009 12:06
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It is appalling that a senior Tory councillor and Dep chair
of Tfl can make remarks such as this. Clearly quite defamatory and a slur on a wonderful charity.
I hope that Mr Moylan will issue a profound apology
- Melvin, London, 28/05/2009 11:45
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"I was aware it was a WLRA demonstration supported by the Taxpayers' Alliance."
Do not know anything about the demonstration, the people who are involved, the issues pertaining to the demo, but I had better email top ranking officials about post haste.
Nice to see those people who are our betters have their fingers on the pulse!
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 28/05/2009 09:43
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