AS CROWDS flock to York for the Christmas rush and we all start complaining about being jostled and jolted, just pause for a moment and imagine being unable to walk.

We all want to do our Christmas shopping, we want the freedom to get around and see what all the stores have to offer. Yet even deserted streets are a nightmare for those who, for whatever reason, are immobile. To anyone disabled by old age, accident or disease, crossing a road can be highly dangerous, climbing a kerb edge may be agony and touring a department store could be impossible.

Despite its ancient buildings not lending themselves to the needs of the disabled, York's facilities are not unreasonable. The City of York Council has gone much further than many local authorities in making sure its streets and public buildings come up to scratch for the wheelchair bound.

A new scheme to make life easier for disabled shoppers in the city has just rolled into fruition. Ten electric and three manual wheelchairs are now available free of charge for use by people with mobility problems while shopping in York.

Shopmobility was the idea of the city's disabled persons' advisory group and has been supported by local businesses, which have helped raise much of the money to finance the venture.

The idea is that disabled people who want to get around the city on shopping expeditions borrow a wheelchair for the duration of their visit.

It will prove particularly valuable for visitors who have travelled long distances by either rail, coach or car and who could not bring their own powered wheelchairs with them.

Thirteen wheelchairs may not seem much when hundreds of disabled people visit - or avoid - York's city centre every day to struggle with the simple acts of shopping which most people take for granted.

But it is a move in the right direction and it is York's acknowledgement that there is a problem which needs to be addressed.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.