Wheelchair users unable to use Skelmersdale’s new buses

May 7 2009 by Nick Moreton, Skelmersdale Advertiser

Wheelchair users unable to use Skelmersdale’s new buses

WHEELCHAIR users are struggling to use the second hand buses which Skelmersdale recently acquired from Wirral.

The Advertiser revealed last month how the town had received 10 buses from Wirral after Birkenhead received a fleet of brand new double deckers.

At the time, Arriva North West said the buses from Wirral, despite being 14 years old, were better than the buses already in operation in Skelmersdale, and insisted they provided a ‘marked improvement in customer comfort’.

But Ray Young, from Windrows, says his 18-year-old disabled daughter Victoria cannot even get on the buses as they have no low-floor access and she can’t enjoy trips out with her friends unless she uses a taxi, rendering useless her free disabled travel pass.

He said: “Victoria hasn’t got a chance on the double decker buses.

“She’s virtually a prisoner because there’s no wheelchair access on them.

“If she wants to go to Southport or Wigan she has to get a taxi, which we can’t afford.