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Dear Sir, UPON reading about the much publicised changes the current PP local government has made to Illetas beach to make it accessible to disabled people, I hopefully embarked on a trip on my electric scooter to check it out for myself.

As a disabled girl, I can now actually get to the beach from my home in the first place, thanks to the “Paseo Calvi” (decent pavements) which the previous PSOE local government invested in.

Yet I'd advise other disabled people to resist attempting such a feat as visiting their local Illetas beach. The much touted lift to the beach is right at the bottom of the steep 100 metre ramp, and then you face the daunting prospect of wheeling yourself back up again.

True, you can drive down the ramp, but you won't find any disabled carparks there.
But it's the lift itself which is a dead give away. It's a good lift. It has no automatic doors, instead they are heavy and difficult to open.
Once you're in, two sides of the lift are completely open, making it highly unsafe should you get anything trapped whilst the lift is moving. And once you're out of the lift, you can only stay inside the bar. To get to the outside terrace, you need to negotiate a big step, and reaching the wheelchair path on the sand requires a miraculous leap down six steps. Clearly disabled people are meant to stay in the bar and drink their sorrows away. Equally clearly, the current local government couldn't have cared less about making the beach accessible, they are just seeking votes by negotiating costs with the bar which needed a goods lift anyway.

Even the wheelchair path is shoddily put down. It is uneven and precariously sloped, and inexplicably stops abruptly upon reaching a step across the middle of the beach.

So you can't get near the sea, and taking a shower involves balancing elegantly on a rock. Especially given Calvia's high number of elderly people, it is a disgrace that this local government dismisses people with mobility difficulties in this way.

Elizabeth Guasp Wilkinson
Ca's Catal Nou
Calvia