Sean Dilley on Transport and Mobility

On Tuesday 6th July, I had the pleasure of accepting an invitation to make the keynote address at Guide Dogs' Transport and Mobility Conference in Central London.

As a guide dog owner of nearly 13 years, I experience frustrations every single day as a result of ill-thought out and badly planned transport infrastructure, but my biggest source of frustration is that as a Parliamentary Lobby Journalist, I am quite rightly de-barred from lobbying politicians on the matter... and it is for this reason that I was so pleased to see Guide Dogs and delegates doing this job so well without me.

Delegates from a variety of organisations joined Guide Dogs in pursuance of their mission to improve the independence of blind and partially sighted people, as well as those with other disabilities - and experts in their fields joined us to discuss how we improve the pedestrian environment, taxis and busses, Trains and Trams and air travel.

All the day's action-points were prioritised by delegates, and the top team at Guide Dogs are now using those priorities to focus on how best to campaign and lobby government, local government and transport operators. I have been to many conferences as a journalist, within and outside of the scope of disability rights, freedoms and independence, and I can honestly say that this is the first time I've actually felt as though action WILL follow.

So I would just like to close congratulating each and every one of you for your hard work - and to coin a phrase, things can only get better!