THE attention given by your paper to the fact that many businesses are yet to take action to meet the needs of people with disabilities - six months on from the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act - is very welcome (April 25).

While you list a number of shops that are failing to provide access to wheelchair users, other businesses are equally culpable.

The Next Generation leisure club, although well placed to provide opportunities for people with disabilities to maintain their fitness and mobility, continues to ignore requests for changes. These relate to a number of access and safety issues, such as no rails around the pool and shower areas, no wet chair available, no protected disabled parking etc.

This is particularly upsetting given its recent announcement of refurbishments to garden furniture, tea and coffee machines, a new carvery unit and so forth, costing more than £38,000.

Margaret Bell,

New Walk Terrace, York.

Updated: 09:39 Tuesday, May 03, 2005