Wheelchair users are left in middle of a busy road

THERE is a wonderful wheelchair rights campaigner living in Laytown named Patrick Gogarty (right).

But Patrick has a problem - a major one - and it all comes down to access on the local bus service.

His normal route is to wait at South Quay where there is a bus shelter.

But getting from the bus stop to the bus is a constant headache.

First of all, there’s no ramp off the footpath and secondly, the bus stop is too often full of cars.

At times, he has found himself struggling to get off the path to get into the road and then get access to the bus to Laytown.

There are a number of pay parking areas here - not too many - and Patrick says if they became no parking zones that would help.

‘ The bus can’t pull in to get me in it,’ he says. ‘I have to go into the middle of the road.’

He says there are times when the ramp that he needs is unable to be lowered, making his plight even worse.

‘ There is a huge lack of safety in this area with the way people park,’ he stated.

So, the best way to sort these things out is to go and have a look and I did.

True enough, the day I popped down, there were about six cars parked in the circular bus bay and there was no way a bus was able to get in there. They would just have to pull up on the road and make people walk over to it.

And with Patrick’s case, it would be a task to do that - but it’s something he faces all the time.

The answer is for people to stop parking in the bus stop here - no matter the hour or day.