Mobility scheme in crisis

Oswestry's Shopmobility programme, which provides scooters and wheelchairs to people with mobility problems, could be in jeopardy in a matter of months because of a funding crisis, bosses warned today.

The scheme, which ensures disabled people can shop and spend time in Oswestry, made a loss of £6,000 in the last financial year and is facing another shortfall this financial year after funding from Oswestry Town Council was cut.

Andrew Brown, from Oswestry Community Action, which runs the Shopmobility scheme, said despite extensive work to cut overheads he feared there might be no other choice but to scrap the service if extra funding was not found by autumn.

He said Shopmobility had been losing between £4,000 to £6,000 a year for about four years and moves were made last year to ensure the group broke even this year.

He said: "A lot of work has been done to reduce the cost of the service and we had calculated that through them we would make the required savings of about £5,000.

"But we were told last week that Oswestry Town Council had decided to cut its funding to us from the £5,000 it normally gave to £3,000 . . . That leaves us short by £2,000."

He added: "The worst case scenario is that in September or October the trustees may have to decide to cut back the service further and the very worst case scenario is that the decision is taken to scrap the service."