Sir, - I refer to the report titled "Coming face to face with everyday life for the disabled" (D&S Sept 29).

It does concern me when a ride in a wheelchair is the only way to get any councillor to listen on any disability issue.

It is almost as if the only way Coun David Murkett would take this issue of health and safety for those in a wheelchair forward was to experience it himself.

He says he will never forget it. This experience is one that every person who needs a wheelchair has to consider every time they leave their home. This might sound dramatic to most people, but next time you go out, look at the pavements, are they even? Consider pushing yourself over them, when already in pain, on top of having to cope with your disability. Look at the shop, leisure centre, cinema, county council office, library etc try to consider how you would manage?

Could you pay your rent without breaking your neck or straining your arm muscles? Can you wheel yourself round the shop without having your eye poked out, or pushing half of the clothes off the rail on the floor? Are you placed at the back of the cinema or with our friends, who you came with? Will the publican or restaurant owner allow you in, or are you a health and safety risk in case of a fire?

Every building that offers a service to the public should be accessible by 2004. Are any of them doing rolling programs of improvements to be able to achieve this?

What is the county/district doing to ensure that this is achieved?

What Mr Lionel Twiss experiences when assisting his son around Thirsk is not exceptional and can be found in other parts of this county.

Little thought is given to those who find accessing areas in our towns and villages difficult.

Opportunities are missed when re-surfacing roads, pavements, refurbishing shops and buildings. What sort of mish-mash of measures will be put in place to enable those buildings who offer a service to be accessible for 2004?

A good example is the parking area mentioned in the article. Was the person who decided to place disabled car parking spaces in the market place, on cobbles of all places, ever given disability training?

Was the area considered for disabled parking ever given an audit by a person with a disability?

Has any official considered the health and safety of trying to get yourself into a wheelchair from a car, when the wheelchair is not steady? Within the workplace this would not be accepted.

When doing the work they were elected to do are our councillors using to its fullest the legislation this government has put in place for the benefit of all the public?

JANET SEYMOUR KIRK

Danes Crest,

Brompton,

Northallerton.

An appreciation

Sir, - Perhaps joined by others keenly interested in the Yorkshire Dales, Spectator might care to know that a copy of the "very slim volume" that enjoys an honoured place on his shelves, The Story of Wensleydale Cheese by the late Kit Calvert, is listed in the current catalogue of R F G Hollett, the Sedbergh antiquarian and second-hand bookseller, at £25. Not a bad appreciation for a 28-page booklet which, as Spectator noted, cost 1s when published (by Dalesman) in 1946.

HARRY MEAD

High St,

Gt Broughton.