New chair lift required at the historic Victoria Rooms in Hampshire

Residents of Fordingbridge are awaiting the verdict of a grant that would be used to replace a 30-year-old stair lift at the Victoria Rooms. Currently, disabled people and those with mobility issues are unable to reach the three upstairs rooms, where a number of classes are held, including the Alzheimers Society’s meetings.  This has also meant that groups of people visiting with a disabled person have also had to remain in the main hall.

There are 31 steps leading up to the upstairs rooms, which have previously been reached by a platform lift until a person got stuck in it two years ago. Since this incident, the lift has needed continual repairs, which prompted the community to begin a fundraising campaign for a new stairlift. The committee of the Victoria Rooms is now currently waiting to hear back from the WYG Global Consultancy following an application for funding assistance.

Community cross fingers for successful grant application

If the committee are successful, then it is likely that the new stairlift will be installed in the next month or two. The fund has already received £800 towards the campaign from the Fordingbridge Co-Operative, with a percentage of proceeds from the staging of Stardust at the Victoria Rooms expected to go towards the chair lift also.

Regarding these donations, chairman of the Victoria Rooms committee John Saunders stated, “I want to thank the generosity of the Co-op who has raised a great deal of money towards the new lift. I hope to hear from our grant application soon so we know whether to keep on fundraising in earnest or organise the installation of the chair lift.”

Following the problems with the rundown platform lift, it was decided that a state-of-the-art stairlift would be much simpler to fit and maintain, although it will cost an estimated £7,000.

Image Credit: Graham Tiller (Flickr.com)

This content was written by Emily Bray. Please feel free to visit my Google + profile to read more stories.