Lift to Kew's treetop runway 'unsafe'

The lift which was supposed to provide disabled access to a £3 million treetop gangway in Kew Gardens is still not in use, three months after the attraction opened.

The 656ft-long Xstrata Treetop Walkway was supposed to be accessible to all visitors. It enables them to look at the tree canopy, and the wildlife living within it, from 60ft in the air.

But the lift, which cost £200,000 and was also for use by visitors with prams and buggies, has been found too dangerous to use.

It is understood to have suffered a series of technical faults, compounded by the effect of this summer's heavy rainfall. Rainwater has collected in the electrics, posing a serious risk to passengers.Trustees at the Royal Botanic Gardens have been forced to postpone operation indefinitely pending an investigation.

Visitors can still climb up to the walkway but must use 90 winding, narrow stairs to reach the highest platform.

An emergency meeting has been called to discuss the problem. Jill Preston, Kew's director of communications, said: "We hope the lift will be working shortly. "The architects have not yet formally handed over the lift to us as it is still being commissioned. The treetop walkway is a complicated and unique structure and is still settling in."

But one visitor who had wanted to use the lift last weekend said she had been told by the Kew health and safety manager that the facility might never open if funds could not be raised to repair it.

"He said that as the walkway is not a building, they are not obligated by law to provided disabled access," said the visitor.

"Water has been gathering in the electrics at the top of the lift and then pouring on to lift users. The lift also tells users it is overloaded when it gets to the top the walkway. It is clearly unsafe.

"Kew brought in Marks Barfield Architects, designers of the London Eye, to create the walkway after the success of a temporary wooden platform built in 2003. The permanent structure was made from rusted corten steel, the material used for the Angel of the North statue near Gateshead. It is supported on slender struts intended to resemble prehistoric trees.

Handrails were fashioned from sweet chestnuts and red oaks that fell in stormy weather. The walkway won the architects one of this year's Innovation and Design Awards.