Wheelchair To Access St Andrew’s West Sands Beach
St Andrew’s West Sand Beach is an iconic spot with plenty of beautiful sceneries to watch. Just taking a stroll along its shore is sure to leave you with great memories and unmatched experiences. Exploring this magnificent West Sand Beach on a wheelchair is now a reality, thanks to a special pony-pulled vehicle.
Named the iBex, this vehicle lets the wheelchair users roll onto it and stay seated even as it tackles the multiple terrains at the beach. The pony itself is named Obama.
The first trip took place on the 28th of this month. Luckily to those who missed, there’s another trip scheduled for 31st July. On their tour of Scotland, Pony AxeS, a service that runs this great initiative, is scheduled to visit St Andrews on this day again.
Other places that have been lucky to host Pony AxeS them include Portobello, Balmedie, and Broughty Ferry.
Changing Places Toilets
Away from the iBex, there will also be another special facility that will make things even smoother. PAMIS will be fetching to the beach one of its innovative changing places toilets. It’s a special accessible toilet that accommodates those with various disabilities.
PAMIS has been around for 25 years and their support towards people with complex healthcare needs and learning disabilities has been incredibly phenomenal. And all through the years, they have done this using creative and innovative ways.
St Andrew’s Tourism Vice Chair, Debbie McCallum remarked that the decision to bring the special facilities to the town was informed by the need to make the beach accessible to any person who wants to explore it. Before this, there was no access to the beach for wheelchair users.
She also added that they look to making the beach not just accessible but all inclusive over time through working with many other organisations that support such initiatives. (In addition to PAMIS)
Pony AxeS
McCallum lauded Pony AxeS and promised to take the necessary steps towards ensuring that it comes back the next year. More importantly, she mentioned that they will take it upon themselves to ensure such facilities (changing places toilets and beach wheelchairs) are ever present in the town.
Pony AxeS is among the few services that lest PAMIS families have a chance to explore St. Andrews. McCallum agrees that the service is a great opportunity and one of the best things to ever happen to PAMIS families.
Andrew Smart, who works with PAMIS, also stated that the majority of the families the service was working with expressed immense joy at the prospect of exploring the town.
And as one would expect, the event has elicited so much excitement as well as anticipation amongst these families and Andrew only hopes that in addition to that, there will be a long list of such events in the coming days.
If you wish to be part of iBex, please call 07510 736 518 or simply send your email to simon@ponyaxes.com and don’t leave out any important detail.
