LIFE is often hard enough for the disabled without the added and still-too-common handicap of those in wheelchairs having obstacles in their path.

But wheelchair-bound Pendle pensioner Roy Coulton, who regularly campaigns for better access for the disabled, finds a peculiar obstruction placed in the way of his wish to travel to shops in Manchester's Trafford Centre...the red tape of small print.

Sixty-seven-year-old arthritis victim Mr Coulton, who has depended on a wheelchair for the past ten years, was delighted when he found that the Burnley and Pendle bus company's X43 service from Nelson to Manchester went all the way through to the giant shopping mall on the outskirts of the city.

But when Mr Coulton contacted the company about taking his electric wheelchair on the journey, he claims he was told he could not as it was classed as a fire hazard and the reserved space on the X43 buses was for standard, non-motorised wheelchairs.

He feels upset and discriminated against -- especially after making inquiries with the fire brigade which, he says, told him there was no chance of the batteries which power his chair being a fire hazard because they are gel-type ones not old-style acid ones.

It would seem that Mr Coulton's problem is solved and that the red tape rule should be scrapped because there is no problem to begin with. But the bus company says he must have misunderstood about his wheelchair being regarded as a fire hazard.

What is the problem, then? To their credit, the bus company has arranged to meet Mr Coulton and examine his wheelchair. And it is to be hoped that the issue can be resolved not only to his satisfaction, but to that of all who use these wheelchairs and depend on buses for travel -- for if they are safe for use in all sorts of public places, it would be cruel for them only to be ruled a risk aboard buses.