Membership
Shopmobility Melton Mowbray’s objectives are to promote the welfare and independence of people with impaired mobility living in and around, or visiting, Melton Mowbray.
The scheme provides the loan of electric scooters and manual wheelchairs to enable access to shops, business and places of interest in Melton Mowbray town centre.
Our scheme meets Melton Borough Council’s corporate strategy in many ways.
Firstly, in making the town centre a more vibrant place by increasing footfall and supporting business. We support this initiative by allowing disabled people access to the town via wheelchairs and motorised scooters. This has been particularly successful on market days.
Shopmobility Melton Mowbray supports those who are most vulnerable within the community helping them to live more independently. By providing the loan of equipment to members with mobility issues they will be able to exercise control over aspects of their lives such as shopping, visits to the doctors,banking etc. Being able to do these small tasks independently will improve their mental health and well-being along with improving the quality of life for local people.
Many of our members are residents who live within recognised priority neighbourhoods. The vast cost of purchasing a scooter means that the ability to hire a mobility scooter or wheelchair for day to day access to Melton is invaluable.
Shopmobility Melton Mowbray is a stand-alone project and is independent of any umbrella organisation. The scheme belongs to ShopMobility UK which is part of Driving Mobility, a registered charity number: 298178, to which we pay a subscription to publicise the Melton Mowbray scheme nationwide.
Manual Wheelchair Hire Charge
Day £3, Weekend* £10, Week* £15
Electric Scooter Hire Charge
Day £4, Weekend* £18, Week* £30
- * a refundable deposit is required
Our History
The concept of Shopmobility originated in the 1970’s with the first scheme opening in Milton Keynes in 1979. The need for a Shopmobility Scheme was addressed by Melton Borough Council in 2006. Shopmobility operated out of 7 Kings Street with 4 manual wheelchairs and 2 motorised scooters.
With expanding user numbers the Scheme acquired a Mobile Unit which is located in its current position in St Mary’s Way Car Park. Hires of equipment roughly number 1000 each year, utilising 4 wheelchairs and 10 scooters. Membership numbers are well on their way to 450.
Our Aims
The scheme is dedicated to ensuring that users of the service are not excluded from accessing the full range of facilities available in Melton Mowbray. The service aims to provide equality of access; allow disabled people greater independence and freedom in their daily lives, assist with the prevention of loneliness and isolation and enable regular contact with the community.
Services
Shopmobility Melton is situated in a mobile unit in St Mary’s Way Car Park. We are open Tuesdays 9.30am to 3.00pm, Friday (Closed January and February) and Saturday mornings 9.30am to 12.30pm. Disabled bays are available but any blue badge holder can park at their convenience in any marked bay if displaying the badge. There is time limit in St Mary's car park of up to a maximum of 4 hours. This applies to disabled parking bays and those displaying Blue Badges. Blue badge holders must also display a clock alongside their badge.
The Scheme aims to provide a welcoming, efficient and easy to use service for members and visitors. To join, new users need to complete a registration form and provide identification. A member of staff will then help choose the most suitable equipment and demonstrate how to use it safely.
A new member should have supervised practice to build up confidence before exploring Melton. Safety guidance sheets are issued to all new users detailing safe use of the equipment.
The whole registration process takes around 15 minutes.
Anyone with limited mobility is welcome to join the scheme. This includes elderly or disabled people right through to those with temporary mobility problems due to illness or accident. They do not need to be registered disabled, a regular equipment user or a blue badge holder.
The daily hire of equipment is most popular but we also offer long term loans for those needing to take the equipment away. This might be for a holiday or to aid recover when purchasing equipment would not be practical.
Our Staff and Volunteers
Coordinator - Glyn Birch
Volunteers - Steve and Laura
Our Trustees
Chair of Trustees - Mike Kitching
Treasurer - Michael Osborne
