Accessible Age-Friendly Hartford

Hartford is considered to be a great place to live, work and study, but many people – particularly disabled people, people with additional needs, and vulnerable older residents – feel shut out of village life.

As Hartford Parish Council, we want to help everyone to participate in village life. Find out how we are working to make the village more accessible and inclusive.

Through the Accessible Age-Friendly Hartford project, our work includes:

Understanding more about the needs of the community: In December 2023, we asked Disability Positive to conduct an audit report of Hartford village centre. The aim was to establish how accessible the village centre is for disabled people, and to gain advice on how to make the village more accessible. We are looking at how we can address the findings of the audit report.
Running a Community Comfort initiative: Many people want to get out and about in Hartford, but are worried about finding an accessible toilet or somewhere to rest. Under the Hartford Community Comfort scheme, participating businesses and organisations allow members of the public to rest inside their premises or to use their toilet facilities, free of charge during normal opening hours. As well as co-ordinating this initiative, we make the accessible toilet in the Village Hall office available to all during office hours.
Publishing Hartford News magazine: This monthly magazine for residents is particularly popular with people who don’t have internet access and cannot visit our website. With local news and event listings, the magazine is delivered to houses across Hartford, helping people to feel part of the community.
Supporting social events for older residents: As Hartford Parish Council, we support two community events aimed at residents – particularly older people – who are looking to socialise. The Thursday Coffee and Chat sessions are about relaxing in good company, whilst the Daytime Discos, held once every three months, are a chance to make new friends and let loose on the dancefloor.
Making Grange Park more inclusive: In August 2025, we added five play panels to Grange Park. You can now play Tic Tac Toe and 3-in-a-row, and make sounds with the drums, xylophone, and rain machine. The idea behind the play panels is to help make the park more inclusive, particularly for children with mobility issues or additional needs. We are grateful to local charity Tiny Steps for helping us to select the play panels.

Offering free Boccia play sessions: Boccia is a Paralympic game, similar to French boules. We have a pitch behind the Village Hall, and recently bought Boccia equipment, so that everyone can play Boccia free of charge. Tiny Steps is also running free-of-charge social Boccia sessions, for families who have children with additional needs. Contact Tiny Steps for more information.
Making our buildings more accessible: Our Village Hall and Green Field Pavilion both have a ramp to the front entrance, and accessible toilets. Some aspects of the buildings are not accessible, and we are working to address these issues – for example, the Village Hall front door does not open automatically, so we have installed a doorbell for people to call for assistance. We are also planning to install Blue Badge parking bays at the Green Field Pavilion.

The information above summarises our work under the Accessible Age-Friendly Hartford (AAFH) project. We hope that this will benefit people in Hartford – but there is still much more work to do. We will update this web page soon with more information about our activities and plans.

Find out more and share your views

The aim of the AAFH project is to improve village life for everyone – particularly disabled people, people with additional needs, and vulnerable older residents. To help shape our plans, we want to hear from residents about your challenges, needs, ideas and perspectives:

Contact us: Any ideas on how we can make Hartford more accessible? Please email, call or visit us at the Village Hall office.
Join our meetings: The AAFH project is run through our Amenities Committee. Meetings are usually held once a month at the Village Hall. At the beginning of each meeting, there is a short ‘Public Open Forum’, where you can raise any matters to councillors. You can then observe the rest of the meeting. At the Village Hall where there is a ramp at the entrance, an accessible toilet, and a hearing loop. There is also limited Blue Badge car parking. If you have any needs for the meeting, please let us know. We will do our best to accommodate your needs.
Join our Residents’ panel: As a member of the panel, we will email you periodically with details about our project plans, and invite you to share your feedback. Any Hartford resident is welcome to join this panel. We particularly welcome disabled people and vulnerable older people, carers for children with disabilities/additional needs, carers for vulnerable adults, and representatives from local SEND / age-related community groups.
To join the panel, please email, call or visit us at the Village Hall office and provide your name and email address, a brief overview of why you want to join the panel, and – if you like – any initial thoughts on how to improve accessibility in the village. Please also let us know if you have any accessibility requirements, to aid panel communications.