Disabled people are having to travel miles for their weekly shop because the High Street supermarkets are failing to provide specialised trolleys.

According to one member of the Sutton Alliance of Disabled People, whose wife is a wheelchair user, they have to travel two miles to Sainsbury's in North Cheam because there have not been any trolleys for nearly a year in Safeway in Sutton.

Ron Martin, who has also complained about Christmas trees being sold in two of the five disabled parking spaces, said: "I told the manager, who then moved the van to another parking bay. But my main worry is the lack of trolleys."

A spokesman for Safeway said: "We are very sorry that we haven't got any trolleys at the moment, but we have ordered some and they should be in the store just after Christmas. In the meantime our staff will be happy to help."

However Mr Martin said: "You don't want to have a member of staff following you around, you just want to be able to go about your business."

A member of staff at Tesco's High Street store admitted it only had one trolley and was not expecting to order any more as it is due to close in June 2002.

Ted Gates, vice chairman of a new organisation which has been awarded a contract by the council to look at access for disabled people, said: "As a full-time wheelchair user, I realise the difficulties this can create.

"I would just assume that there would be trolleys for disabled people and I will make sure this matter is brought up in the next meetings."

A spokesman for the Disability Rights Commission said: "If they are providing shopping trolleys for the general public, then there should be adequate facilities for disabled people."

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 states a service provider must not offer a disabled customer a lower standard of service than they would offer other customers.

December 19, 2001 16:00