A PENSIONER who has regularly campaigned for disabled access today slammed a local bus service after being told that he and his wife would not be allowed on board with electric wheelchairs.

Roy and Janet Coulton, both 67, of Clough Road, Nelson, are dependent on their motorised wheelchairs to get about and said they were disgusted when they found out they could not travel on the X43 service from Nelson to Manchester.

A timetable for the Burnley and Pendle service states that the low-floor, easy-access buses are wheelchair friendly but goes on to say the reserved area on the bus is for standard non-motorised wheelchairs.

Mr Coulton, who has arthritis and has used a wheelchair for the last 10 years, said when he contacted the bus company he was told electric wheelchairs were a fire hazard.

A representative from the bus company has now arranged to meet with Mr Coulton next Friday, May 3, to have a look at the style of his wheelchair and to discuss the matter further.

He did not want to comment on the issue until after the meeting but said that Mr Coulton must have misunderstood about the wheelchair being a fire hazard.

But Mr Coulton said: "I felt really rotten and I had been discriminated against. I have no other transport now so I have got to rely on other people or the buses. When I saw that you could go all the way through to the Trafford Centre in Manchester I thought it was great but my bubble was burst when I read I wasn't allowed on."

"I rang the fire brigade and explained I was in wheelchair and asked them if I was a fire hazard and they said there was no chance of me being a fire hazard because the batteries are gel, not like the old acid batteries. They said the only way the chair was a potential hazard was if people were charging the batteries wrongly.

"If the bus company are saying I am a fire hazard then I must be hazard anywhere. I spoke to the transport manager and he said I must have been given wrong information and he would try and sort it out."

Mr Coulton has campaigned on several issues over the years including the lowering of kerbs across the county and the need for a wheelchair logo on advertisements for restaurants, hotels and other tourist attractions to say whether they are accessible.