Out of order: Why there’s delays before working doors

The ‘out of order’ state around campus is finally being fixed – but the university has passed the blame with the problems about the doors on the MHT and Business and Law buildings.

The University of Lincoln’s newly opened Business and Law faculty building is to have it’s current disabled entrance upgraded after the university’s Disabled Students Group called for better disabled access to the building, but not until the summer.

The main access to the Business and Law building has automatic door which can only be accessed via steps, whilst the disabled entrance has non power-assisted doors.

A University of Lincoln spokesperson said that university was “in the process of installing electronic push buttons” for the alternative entrance to the building.

After voicing concerns over access to the newly completed Business and Law building, the Disabled Students Group were told that “automatic doors were replacing the heavy doors, but this won’t be done until the summer” according to the president of the group, Wendy Phillips.

The university said that “access to the Business and Law faculty building has been affected by a delay to the road improvement works due to be undertaken by an external third party”, saying it was “beyond the university’s control”.

Whilst this improvement to the Business and Law building are going ahead, it’s taken a month before the doors at the entrance to the MHT building have been fixed.

The delay was due to the university waiting for new parts, but no date was given for their arrival. The university noted that access to the MHT building was “not affected” by the faulty doors.

In February, the doors of the architecture building were not working for almost three weeks, forcing students to gain access to the building though the fire exit.