Bus helps disabled shoppers 'overcome barriers'

A new initiative is hoping to make it easier for people with disabilities to do their weekly food shop.

The charity UnLtd has been working with Guernsey supermarket Alliance to make shopping more inclusive.

UnLtd has been using its accessible minibus to take passengers to do the shop each week as part of a push to ensure everyone can shop locally with dignity and independence.

Tim Feak, the charity's development manager, said: "Inclusion in retail shouldn't be the exception, it should really be the norm and this initiative is a way of overcoming some of the barriers we experience in Guernsey."

Hazel Ferbrache, who was on the first shop organised by the charity on Wednesday, said it gave her the independence to shop on her own.

"I'm all right like this because they bring me and all I've got to do is get a trolley," she said.

"I can do my shopping on my own quite well."

The charity's development manager said the initiative could also help people overcome feelings of isolation.

Feak said: "For some people it's the one trip out of the house for the week.

"The secondary psychological impact often of having a disability is that you become quite isolated and, of course, that's not healthy for any of us."

Staff at Alliance have been given special disability confidence training.

Keiran Poole, the supermarket's operations director, said: "If this is something that could be rolled out across... the wider retail across the island that would be exceptional for the UnLtd community."