Threatened with the loss of our public service vehicles during the ‘cuts’ last year, I, an elderly gentleman with walking problems, foreseeing problems ahead invested in a ‘mobility scooter’ at a great cost to my family of over a thousand pounds.
Here in Hollywood, Worcs, the county has never found it necessary to install ‘dropped curbed’ pavements, police do not advise elderly people driving ‘mobility scooters’ on the road, unless they can travel at 10 mph. so my newly acquired transport sits alone in my garage as an expensive white elephant expecting to be charged regularly while remaining useless.
A five inch diameter wheel cannot negotiate a two inch stone kerb so how long suffering mothers with push chairs with two inch wheels manage I cannot imagine. A neighbour, jammed on a high kerbstone, leaned back in his chair; tipped himself backward into the road and was badly injured. He sold his wheelchair the same day, at half the cost of buying it and now remains housebound and broke.
The council sympathises but can take no action while I, an 86 year old veteran, hobble with my stick to the local library and my expensive wheelchair lies idle in my garage.
Peter Short, Hollywood
