Shopmobility Wrexham improving city centre access with new scooters and disability pushchairs

Shopmobility Wrexham is improving access to Wrexham city centre with a raft of new scooters, new disability pushchairs and improved opening times.

On Thursday 14 December, the Mayor, Cllr Andy Williams joined Catriona Learmont, Regional Officer for Wrexham of the National Lottery Community Fund, and Alison Roberts, representing the Tesco Community Grant to launch this new chapter in Shopmobility Wrexham’s life.

The organisation, based on King Street, has gained 12 new mobility scooters to cater for a wider variety of needs.

These will help people access the city centre directly from the Bus Station, opening up Wrexham to more people.

Four road scooters and three boot scooters have been provided by the Anne, The Duchess of Westminster Fund – whilst four road scooters have been sponsored by the National Lottery Community Fund.

A boot scooter has also been funded by the Tesco Community fund.

A boot scooter is one that can be broken down into pieces and will fit into a car boot. These scooters are available for hire for extended periods, perhaps to cover an injury or for holiday.

Shopmoblity Wrexham have worked hard to secure funding to ensure that they are now open five days a week, Monday to Friday, 10:00 until 16:00 – they are also open on weekend, and late into the evening during special events.

During his visit, the Mayor spent time talking to people who were using the Warm Space (available while Shopmobility Wrexham is open), as well as talking to funders about the importance of Shopmobility to City of Wrexham.

Here he heard how life-changing the service was, enabling people who, without it, would be unable to access the city center.

The Mayor also got to see the 4 new Excel Elise disability pushchairs.

These pushchairs are designed to help older children and teens who struggle with mobility, sensory needs and other difficulties in accessing the busy streets of Wrexham.

They can enable a family to visit the city and to enjoy what it has on offer.

David McDonald, Accessibility Development Officer at AVOW said: “We want Wrexham to be accessible to everyone, whatever their age.”

David went on to say that they were very grateful to The National Lottery Community Fund for supporting them with these pushchairs.

Shopmobility Wrexham plays an incredibly important part of making an accessible Wrexham.

It has already increases access to the city centre by providing mobility aids such as scooters and pushchairs, but in the New Year it wants to do more. It aims to be open one Saturday a month to enable more people to get into the city.

The organisation plans to work in partnership with other charities, to help them improve their accessibility needs, and explore the ways in which they can work together in partnership to increase accessibility of all kinds, not just physical.