Milestone reached for Nairn Beach Wheelchairs as they announce partnership with High Life Highland
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Plans for a community initiative to make Nairn Beach more accessible have taken a significant step forward.
Nairn Beach Wheelchairs has garnered incredible support from the local community in recent months, raising £30,000 for the cause – double its initial target.
Last week the action group, whose members have been raising funds to create a new service enabling people with disabilities to hire special wheelchairs that allow users to access the local beach for free, announced they are now officially a registered charity.
This comes after the announcement of an official partnership with High Life Highland, which will allow the service to establish a base at Nairn Leisure Centre.
It is a significant milestone for the charity which started fundraising in September last year and could now be set to roll out its services this summer.
Chairwoman Amelia Williamson said: “It’s a really exciting moment for us and we are delighted at this new partnership.
“My daughter is a wheelchair user and I was really keen that other accessible facilities were available, so the Nairn Leisure Centre was the ideal place.
“It made sense, from my point of view. Accessible facilities is something they already provide as part of their job. It was something already on the agenda.
“We had an initial meeting with Richard Hanna (manager at Nairn Leisure Centre), and then it took on from there and we are delighted they were on board.”
Users will be able to use disabled toilets, showers, changing place and parking available at the High Life Highland-run centre.
Although the group initially planned to raise £15,000 to buy two beach wheelchairs, they have now raised double of that amount, and they will be able to purchase three manual wheelchairs, a hoist and a container where to keep the equipment.
“The community support has been incredible,” Ms Williamson continued.
“We had members of the community organising fundraisers for us. We even had donations from America!
“One of the most touching things was receiving donations from funeral collections from families of people who supported the cause that sadly passed away.”
They are now calling for volunteers to help run the service when it kicks off.
“There is still a lot of work to do, and planning permissions to file in. But all going well, we hope to be able to be operational from June this year,” Ms Williamson said.
“Our availability will depend a lot on how many volunteers will make themselves available. Ideally, we’d like to be running when the leisure centre is open, but it will all depend on availability.
“This will benefit locals and tourists alike. There is nothing quite like this near Nairn and we will have a very wide catchment area.”
Anyone interested can contact the group via their Facebook group or by emailing nairnbeachwheelchairs@gmail.com.
Steve Walsh, chief executive of High Life Highland, said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Nairn Beach Wheelchairs in removing the barriers that prevent disabled access to the beautiful beach at Nairn.
“The lasting health and wellbeing benefits of spending time by the sea are well documented, therefore we are pleased to be supporting the amazing Nairn Beach Wheelchair volunteers by providing storage and restroom facilities at Nairn Leisure Centre.
“My family are regular users of the facilities provided by Dornoch Beach Wheelchairs, so I am especially pleased that High Life Highland are playing a part in making life better by providing access for local and visiting disabled users at another Highland location, especially given the iconic nature of Nairn beach.”
