Column is such an insult

To label mobility scooter users as a menace in general terms is, quite frankly, an insult to the vast majority of disabled people who, without the use of them, would be housebound.

While I agree with Mr Barkes that people need to be assessed as competent to operate them, there are, however, a minority of users who abuse the privilege and give us a bad name.

Mr Barkes refers to registering and issuing mobility scooters with an identification plate, which would mean setting up another Government department, probably costing the taxpayer and the disabled money they do not have in these austere times, and all for too little or no effect.

As mobility scooter users, we find that we are the ones in most danger from moving road vehicles, pedestrians not looking where they are going, unsupervised children running in front of us, and cyclists riding on the pavements.

Other issues are cars parked across the dropped kerb crossings, and cars parked on pavements, allowing no room for our scooters to pass by.

Mr Barkes’s derogatory remarks about overweight people, and labelling mobility users as a menace, only promotes discrimination towards disabled people, as if they need that.

I don’t think it has occurred to him that he may well need the use of a mobility scooter in his old age.

Mike Clough, chairman, Arun Access Group

Heo Green

Wick