A LOT more should be done to enable people with mobility problems to have more independence.

Far too much of our public transport, many taxis, shops and public buildings are still awfully difficult for them to negotiate without needing help from the able-bodied - and they shouldn't be put in that position.

In so many other countries in Europe, especially Scandinavia, being disabled-friendly seems to be second nature.

Museums, art galleries, shopping malls seem to have chair lifts built in to them, not tacked as afterthoughts and then boasted about in huge signs.

I'd also love to see those able-bodied motorists who drive straight into disabled parking bays at supermarkets (almost always in enormous 4x4s) clamped.

Alternatively they could have their tyres let down while they are shopping so when they come out they discover exactly what it is like to be unable to get home without help.

And the idea of enabling people who cannot walk to access countryside in battery-powerd buggies on the sort of gently undulating properly-surfaced paths that can be seen in some parts of the Lake District and Blackburn's Witton Park is a great idea.

But I draw the line at anyone with a wheeled machine (and that particularly includes mountain bikes and motorised trail bikes!) being able to access the conventional footpaths that criss-cross our national parks and open countryside.

The reason is quite simple.

They move at a speed that makes them a danger to walkers and churn up paths reducing them to a muddy mess which is extremely difficult for old-fashioned walkers to negotiate.

For that reason the decision to remove from motorised buggies from Sunnyhurst Wood in Darwen until there are proper paths for them is a sensible one.

At the same time we need to look at the speed and manner in which some people drive these vehicles.

Last year two shoppers on a Cornwall pavement were injured when a buggy went out of control and there have been a number of other serious accidents involving collisions with cars as well as injuries to pedestrians.

Not so long ago I was almost run down myself in the now-demolished Lord Square in Blackburn by a buggy coming out of the shopping centre at a speed which, if it had been a bicycle, would have probably resulted in a police chase and arrest.

Anything with the weight and bulk of a large dodgem car moving at more the five miles per hour through crowded pedestrian areas is a potential danger and should be treated as such.

In the wrong hands one person's mobility aid could easily render another person disabled.