Letter: Help the disabled in the House and country

Sir: Julian Critchley's open letter to Tony Newton on the subject of accessibility at the Palace of Westminster will have struck a chord with thousands of wheelchair users. In asking for an electric wheelchair, he echoed the plea of many who canno t obtain a powered chair through the National Health Service and are instead turning to charities for their most basic needs - or indeed going without altogether.

A recent report by Scope (formerly The Spastics Society) entitled Wheel Power? highlighted the inadequacy of wheelchair provision and found many people are left struggling with unsuitable or even unsafe equipment. Add that to the problems so often presented by the built environment and you begin to get a measure of the frustration and anger felt by many.

Perhaps Mr Critchley could help draw his colleagues' attention to this state of affairs, not just in the Palace of Westminster but throughout the country?

Yours sincerely, ANN ROBINSON Chief Executive Scope London, W1

14 December