Anger at decision to permanently close mobility shop in West Bromwich

Express & Star

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.

Transcript

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 £12 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 £12 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]

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