Last month, we brought you the story of pensioner John Shaw, who said he was “appalled” at the lack of suitable wheelchair access to a number of premises across West Fife.

John, of Forker Avenue, was recently confined to a wheelchair and is unable to stand or walk, and uses an electronic chair as a means of ensuring he is not housebound.

After encountering a number of access problems, he called the Press and demanded that the council look into the issue after he was unable to mount the pavement when crossing the road at the Palace, meaning he was stuck on the road with traffic passing by until a passing pedestrian helped him over the kerb.

Since our story, the council has carried out work to lower the kerb at the crossing and John said, “It is a start so I’m very pleased – the power of the Press works!

“Since the article went into the Press, an awful lot of people have mentioned it and whether other people had been chipping away at the council about it as well, I don’t know, but as long as it’s done that’s the main thing.

“The one thing that is coming across though is that there is no way of policing cars don’t block drop-down kerbs. They have also issued an excellent document on best practice for disabled access but it is not something that they can enforce, which is disappointing.

“But there are other areas they can look at in their own buildings – for example, the resource centre in Rosyth, which isn’t that old a building. The doors open the wrong way to access it in a wheelchair, which, to me, is ridiculous.” He added, “There is more they can do. For example, at the moment I have to use taxis to go to different places because the Ring-and-Ride service cannot take my wheelchair. The people who run the service are lovely and do a great job but the girl I spoke to at the council said that because it’s a sloping road outside my house, there’s a possibility I could roll back if I was pushed onto the ramp and the brakes were off. It’s a health and safety thing which I’m happy to believe but they could probably look at turning the bus to face down the street.

“I have been told there will be a meeting soon to discuss it, so access is being looked at.” Ian Jones, Roads Network Management (South Fife) lead professional, said, “We encourage people to contact us directly to discuss matters like this and as a service we’re pleased to hear that Mr Shaw is happy with the work done to rectify the kerb on Queensferry Road.

“We take a proactive approach when carrying out road engineering and resurfacing work across Fife, to include drop-down kerbs where necessary.”