Wheelchair access ramp installed on Southsea Beach in effort to make seaside more accessible for disabled people

The wooden ramp, on Southsea Beach next to Southsea Beach Cafe, was put in place last month by Portsmouth City Council following consultation with local wheelchair users.

Laura Collinson, a wheelchair user and founding member of Portsmouth Disability Advisory Group, said: ‘The feedback we’re getting is positive. You can sit with your friends and familiy on the ramp and I’m just thrilled that’s it’s finally happening.

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‘Our dream would be to have a wooden promenade running along through the plants at Eastney so that you can get off the concrete promenade and get a little bit closer to the plants and actually sea the ocean.

‘We’re going to keep pushing the council for funding. It’s a bit of a trial – we don’t know how these things are going to work until we put them down because we’ve got moving shingle.’

Laura has been asking the council to look into beach accessibility since 2009 and said she was ‘pleasantly suprised’ when she heard a ramp was coming to the beach, following the installation of one in Eastney and a previous ramp on Southsea Beach. She has set up the new group alongside her friend and fellow campaigner John Cullen and the pair run the Accessible Beach Campaign for Portsmouth. Laura, 62 , was left partially paralysed after a bus crash in 1994 in India and added that she came out of it ‘lucky to be alive’.

Laura has spent the last 25 years travelling the world as a scuba diver. She added: ‘As I get a little bit older and my travels get harder and a little bit more expensive I thought “hang on, I’ve got a beach here. Why am I not going in the water here?” I’ve been lucky enough to go on some amazing beaches around the world. None of them have been accessible but it’s done with the good will of friends and the locals who help you in to the water.’

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The Portsmouth Disability Advisory Group is looking for new members who are interested in discussing accesibility issues to put to the council. You can find out m ore about the group by emailing [email protected].