A WOMAN who regularly attends a day centre has been told she is no longer allowed as her wheelchair was "not crash proof", she has said.

Great-grandmother Ryta Grimston, 80, from Thorpe Willoughby, attends the Selby day centre Carentan House twice a week and has been going for about six years.

But she was recently told she would not be able to keep going as her aluminium-framed wheelchair was not deemed safe enough for travel and she needed a steel framed chair.

Mrs Grimston said: "It has upset me, I can't sleep thinking about it.

"They said 'I'm sorry we can't take you because you wheelchair is not crash proof'. They said they are not allowed to."

North Yorkshire County Council said it has provided a chair that is suitable, but Mrs Grimston, who meets with friends at Carentan House, said that as her mobility has been affected by a stroke, she can only easily control a lighter one.

Her daughter Sue Rawling said the centre was a "lifeline" for her mother.

A council spokeswoman said: “The county council must ensure that people transported in wheelchairs in any of our vehicles are safe.

"Over the last couple of years therefore the county council has been carrying out a rolling programme of risk assessments to ensure that wheelchairs are suitable to be used on transport in line with the manufacturers guidelines.

"In cases where wheelchairs are found to be not suitable for transportation, the county council makes every effort to ensure that users are able to access their usual services.

"In this case the county council has arranged for a suitable wheelchair to be made available on a temporary basis so the customer can be transported in the usual way, until a permanent solution can be found.”