Councillor Mary Heathcote, herself visually impaired, has spearheaded plans to recruit ‘MPs’ to represent visually impaired people in Kingston. The plans are closer to fruition.

The Visual Impairment Parliament, the first of its kind in the country, will speak up for blind and visually impaired people about council, health, education, transport and other services and raise awareness of the needs of people with sight loss.

The body, which would be modelled on the borough’s successful Learning Disability Parliament, is part of an action plan drawn up by a partnership led by Kingston Council and Thomas Pocklington Trust, a charity which houses and supports people with sight loss.

The plans, prepared in consultation with visually impaired people and organisations, also include a new volunteer service at Kingston Hospital’s Royal Eye Unit to support and advise people diagnosed with sight loss, and a scheme to create employment and enterprise opportunities for people who have lost their sight.

There are 570 people registered as living with sight loss in Kingston – 350 registered as blind and 220 as partially sighted – but the Royal National Institute of Blind People estimates that there are more than 4,000 people with sight loss in the borough.

Sight loss affects people of all ages, and their views must be heard. If nothing changes the number of visually impaired people in Kingston is likely to increase by 22 per cent by 2020.

Our strategy is designed to help visually impaired people access the health and care services they need, and the new parliament will help to shape our plans for improving services and creating new opportunities for those residents. There is a real appetite for what we’re doing.

said St Mark’s Ward Councillor and Disability champion, Mary Heathcote