On most occasions, when any of us sees a mobility scooter or electric wheelchair in operation, it will be on the streets in our local town, city, or village. In many cases, this will be an easy thoroughfare to navigate, with flat or easily sloping streets and reasonably maintained pavements.
There will be occasions when this is not the case, such as when maintenance has been poor and somebody needs to have words with the local council. But there are times when the terrain is much more challenging and there is nothing your local authority will be able to do about it.
This is not about some streets having a few cobbles, but the fact that in some places the roads and paths can be very steep. Moreover, while green spaces in urban areas may be mostly nicely manicured parks with wide paths and mown lawns, that isn’t the case for everyone.
In such instances, a more robust mobility scooter or an all-terrain electric wheelchair is what you need, a point that has been recognised at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust in Shropshire.
As the Shropshire Star reports, the museum, which recreates the Victorian Blists Hill village at the heart of the industrial revolution, has ordered an all-terrain scooter to enable visitors with limited mobility to navigate the site, helped by funding from two charitable trusts.
Located in the area’s historic coalfields, Blists Hill covers 52 acres and there is a steep incline between the upper and lower parts of the town. Getting from one part to the other is a bit much for the average mobility scooter, but the trust has managed to secure funds for an all-terrain vehicle that will enable users to fully explore the site.
Head of development at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, Gayle Kelly, said: “We are incredibly excited to be able to offer our first scooter to visitors with mobility issues, thanks to the generous donation from two trusts.”
While this may be good news for tourists on a day out, for many people, an all-terrain scooter or wheelchair can be vital for everyday use.
In some cases, this is because the local town has some very steep streets, with areas such as East Lancashire and West Yorkshire, where narrow roads crawl up the lower slopes of the Pennines, being a case in point.
However, it is not just up north where this is true. Indeed, those who remember the Hovis adverts may be surprised that the supposedly stereotypical northern steep cobbled street is Gold Hill in the Dorset village of Shaftesbury.
The steepest residential street in the whole of the UK is also in the south west: Vale Street in Bristol, although the Pennines can claim the steepest road, Bamford Clough in Derbyshire.
Steep gradients are not the only challenge that may be faced, of course. Those living in the countryside may find they need a means of getting about on rough tracks and paths, where the terrain is anything but even.
The fact that there are all-terrain wheelchairs available, capable of taking on such challenges, is good news, whether you live out on the sticks or the steep streets of Bristol.
