Ian Longden

Fellow’s Profile

Ian Longden

Fellow’s Profile

Ian Longden

Access to the countryside for disabled people

Fellowship

Themes

Countries

Fellowship year

2001

Locality

East Midlands

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Biography

I am Director of Access Trailers Sales and Rentals Ltd, based in Buxton, Derbyshire. My Fellowship in 2001 was about improving access to the countryside for disabled groups, with the aim of looking at how other countries had developed access to the countryside for disabled users.

At the time of my Fellowship, I was education warden on a 120-acre working farm on the edge of Sheffield and wanted to make access to the farm inclusive for all users. One of my most important projects was to design and build a trailer to facilitate transport on and around the farmland.

In 2002 I left my full-time job and set up Access Trailers. Over the last 20 years I have designed, developed and built the largest range of passenger-carrying trailers in the UK, called Countryside People Carriers. These range from lightweight (all-terrain vehicle models, ideal for accessing remote or sensitive areas of countryside, to large tractor-drawn units capable of carrying more than 40 passengers. Many of the trailers are designed to carry wheelchair users.

My Fellowship was the best thing that ever happened to me. It gave me the confidence to develop my trailers, which in turn have provided hundreds of thousands of people with improved access to the countryside.

Disclaimer

All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.

Disclaimer

All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.

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