Local Mobility HERO

Older people and people with reduced mobility living in small towns and rural villages across the Highlands, Moray and Grampian are set to benefit from a new outreach mobility service thanks to a local HERO.

The Highland Employment Recruitment Offer (HERO) is funded by the Highland Council and the Scottish Government under the No One Left Behind and Young Person's Guarantee Funding Streams. The fund helps people of all work ages and with the greatest barriers to employment secure and stay in jobs.

The funding has allowed City Mobility, an essential mobility business covering the area, to employ an Outreach Mobility Advisor to pilot a new service “to explore new worlds, to boldly go where no Mobility Advisor has gone before”!

The service will help people by making the availability of mobility scooters more accessible in rural locations where local towns (within the City Mobility dealership area) don’t have access to, or can’t sustain, a permanent mobility shop helping people who can’t easily travel to its specialist showroom in Inverness.

Carol Elliot, City Mobility’s Managing Director who also has reduced mobility, said it is something she has always wanted to trial since being involved in the mobility business.

“Coming from a rural area I’m aware how hard it is for people to get to Inverness or Aberdeen to see a range of mobility scooters and have a test drive, so we aim to take a smaller version of our mobility showroom for one day only to local areas so people don’t have to travel too far,” she said.

“The aim is to run pop-up shops and attending events to showcase the benefits using a mobility scooter.  We would welcome businesses such as garden centres and cafes that would be happy to rent a space to us to get in touch.  We are also happy, once restrictions are lifted, to work with community organisations and sheltered housing complexes etc running social events that would welcome us,” she added.

As well as selling, servicing and repairing private mobility scooters and powerchairs and fitting specialist car adaptations, City Mobility is also the only retailer based in the region that provides mobility equipment through the “all inclusive, worry free” Motability lease scheme. 

People interested in finding out more about the Motability Scheme or who want to arrange a free home demo or test drive need not wait for an Outreach event in their area, they can call City Mobility on 01463 250850 or 01224 452850 to arrange a test drive directly. 

To see where the next Mobility Showcase event is being held follow this link.