Disabled users of a "lifeline" mobility service have been told it is set to be axed.
Sandwell Council-funded Shopmobilty centre in West Bromwich gives disabled people scooters four days a week.
However, funding for the scheme is set to be cut in the next week's budget leaving local disabled people distraught.
Sandwell Council-funded Shopmobilty centre in West Bromwich gives disabled people scooters four days a week.
However, funding for the scheme is set to be cut in the next week's budget leaving local disabled people distraught.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Good morning, we're here today outside the shopability centre in West Bromwich.
00:06 We're talking about the council closing it down, not relocating it anywhere, completely
00:11 and utterly closing it.
00:13 A valued service to the people here that can't get around to shop because of the pedestrianisation,
00:21 the obsessive pedestrianisation has effectively banned them from the high streets.
00:26 Not only, we've got two problems here, the Conservative government has actually cut the
00:32 funding and they've actually then passed the cuts on to the people that can ill afford
00:40 to have it.
00:42 You say the place has been here since the late 80s?
00:45 This place has been established and running since possibly late 80s, early 90s.
00:51 It's got thousands of people on the books, it's still got hundreds that today that are
00:56 still current.
00:58 As I said before, these people are the most vulnerable in the community and they've just
01:03 been having the dirty put on them.
01:05 What would you like to happen?
01:07 It's got to be kept open, they've got to find some funding, stop putting the insane, literally
01:12 insane pedestrianisation programme in and spend some money where it's really needed.
01:18 There's towns where, as I've said previously, people can't get access, no disabled or infirm
01:25 or the old folk can't get into our towns anymore, they've effectively been banned.
01:30 OK Jameson, you've been using the mobility shop for over 8 years?
01:34 Over 8 years.
01:35 Yeah, so what happened?
01:37 And I had a stroke and fell down the stairs and this is my only way I can get to come
01:43 shopping now.
01:44 I had to rely on the ring and ride, I had to rely on taxes, so I'm already paying a
01:52 fortune of ÂŁ12 a day for shopping because I had to use a taxi to get here.
01:59 You know, all these things, that's added on to my weekly shop, another ÂŁ12 where nobody
02:05 else has to pay.
02:07 I'm already paying 100% more for my food because of the situation.
02:14 So if this goes, if it just completely disappears, how's that going to affect you?
02:18 I won't be able to go anywhere.
02:20 I won't be able to come up the town because I need a scooter up the town.
02:24 I've got a motorbike and a scooter at home but I can't drive from my house, from Charlemont,
02:30 all the way up here, you know, safely today.
02:35 I've already been mugged once a few years ago and it's petrified me now to come all
02:40 that way.
02:41 So if it goes it'll make a huge difference to your life?
02:44 Me and thousands of other people in this borough absolutely rely on this shop implicitly.
02:51 There's no other explanation for it.
02:54 They wouldn't come up here, they wouldn't go shopping, they wouldn't mix with anybody.
02:59 You know, and a lot of people come to this shop to get a scooter, to go down the Link
03:03 Centre where people get their toes done, their nails done, their eyes done, their blood's
03:08 done.
03:09 So it's a necessity, you know, you can't take something away that is used constantly by
03:17 a minority of people just because they're disabled.
03:21 I feel I'm just picking on us.
03:23 [BLANK_AUDIO]