Abergavenny Town Council has taken the short trip across town to Shopmobility in Castle Street car park to undertake awareness sessions on mobility scooters used in the town.

Abergavenny Shopmobility is a free service provided by Monmouthshire County Council, that enables elderly people and people with disabilities to use their mobility scooters around Abergavenny.

The service was set up in July 2003 to help facilitate people with disabilities to get around town, with the main focus of ‘returning mobility to people’.

The service is also used by people with sports injuries, and has around 1,0 to 1,500 users every year.

Last week Abergavenny Shopmobility co-ordinator David Overland allowed councillors including Deputy Mayor Cllr Anne Wilde and Town Clerk Sandra Rosser to be taken out by volunteers who regularly use scooters to highlight the issues they face when out on mobility scooters.

The service is open and operated from Castle Street car park from Tuesday to Saturday, from 10am to 2pm. Those wishing to use scooters are advised to visit the base in the car park to book in advance.

Deputy Mayor, Cllr Anne Wilde, along with Town Clerk Sandra Rosser, went on a route around the town with the Promobility Group Chair, Felicity Brannigan.

Cllr Wilde said “It has been an interesting experience, traversing routes around the town so many of us take for granted as being easily accessible. To sit and view the front of a shop and realise that you can’t go in due to there being a step or display or furniture in the way, or having to travel so much further along a pavement just to find a dropped kerb in order to cross a road; to find that when trying to cross a road you can’t see if it is clear to do so because of vehicles being parked in places that block lines of sight; all of this has made me far more aware of the daily struggles faced by those in our community who rely upon these wonderful scooters from Shopmobility to be able to access shops and services around the town centre.”