Disabled drive (From Free Press Series)

Disabled drive

TORFAEN councillors put themselves in the driving seat to see what difficulties people who suffer from mobility problems face while shopping in Pontypool.

Cllrs John Cunningham, executive member for operational services, and Phil Seabourne, chairman of the Torfaen Access Coalition, joined Megan Rosser-Davies, manager of Shopmobility Cwmbran, to investigate the issue of disabled parking.

Over the past few months the Pontypool Free Press received several letters from people complaining about the lack of disabled parking for shoppers and the council recently introduced new disabled parking bays in Market Street and outside the Registrar's office in Hanbury Road.

The councillors have since taken to the streets on motorised scooters to identify difficulties people with disabilities have to contend with while shopping in Pontypool.

Cllr Cunningham, who is also chairman of Torfaen Community Transport, organised the exercise, which he said proved to be very useful.

"It highlighted the problems that shoppers with a disability face when they visit the town. Pontypool is set in a valley so we can't alter the geography of the town. But we did come across some areas where we might be able to improve things," he said.

"I had no trouble travelling up through the town to Tesco but when I came back to the Civic Centre I think the introduction of some more dropped kerbs could make things easier."

Cllr Cunningham also explained Torfaen Community Transport is investigating the possibility of introducing a shopmobility scheme, whereby people can hire a motorised scooter to use whilst shopping in Pontypool.

He said: "Again this is in the early stages but it is something we are considering.

"By investigating this issue on a scooter it gave us a real insight into how we can improve things."