DISABLED people in Darlington were able to use the library's wheelchair access for the first time yesterday after months of renovations came to an end.

An entrance for wheelchair users, complete with lift, has been installed, along with a package of measures to make the Victorian building more accessible for disabled people and parents with pushchairs.

The scheme was the achievement of a task force, set up in 2000, to bring about the £150,000 changes.

Gordon Pybus, of Darlington Association on Disability, was the first to use the entrance yesterday.

He said: "It is the first time I have been into the library since the 1980s, when I was on crutches.

"Disabled people have had very little access to the library until now, because of the steep steps to the main entrance."

The lift is at street level at the corner of Crown Street and Priestgate, and will allow the library to employ disabled people for the first time.

Before the renovations, disabled users had easy access to Cockerton library and the mobile library, but not the range of facilities available at the main library.

Renovations have included new carpeting throughout, including colour-coded carpets for visually impaired people, lower counters at the library desks, hearing loops for the deaf, toilets for disabled people, and training for staff to care for disabled customers.

Automatic doors and wider aisles are also in place throughout the library.

The northern part of the building was opened as the Edward Pease Free Library in 1885, following a gift from the Darlington Quaker on his death, and it was tripled in size by the borough architect in 1933.