AN AUDIT of every shop in Pickering has found that 80 per cent are flouting the law on disabled access.

Government rules are being followed in only one-fifth of the town's businesses says a report drawn up by Pickering Town Council.

The document will now be sent to the offending premises, urging them to change their ways.

Councillors Mal Danks and Judy Dixon visited all 160 businesses offering goods and services in Pickering.

They found the vast majority were not accessible to wheelchair users.

Their survey covered Park Street, Bridge Street, Potter Hill, Southgate, The Ropery, Westgate, Burgate, Hallgarth, Market Place, Kirkham Lane, Smiddy Hill, Eastgate, Eastgate Mews and Hungate.

In August, The Press revealed their interim findings - that many businesses were not disabled-friendly.

According to the final survey, released yesterday, only 36 premises are wheelchair-accessible.

Of the remaining 124, five make specific adjustments to accommodate disabled people.

They included The Magic Bean, which has a mobile ramp to fit over the two steps to the premises and a notice inviting customers to ask for help. Ryedale Housing and Flintofts both had a bell for disabled people to ring for assistance.

The report said: "These three premises are examples of inexpensive reasonable adjustments that can be made to accommodate disabled customers where alterations to the entrance to the building are either not possible or prohibitively expensive."

But it adds: "There is no current evidence to suggest that 119 of the 160 businesses in Pickering are complying with the Disability Discrimination Act."

The report was presented to a meeting of Pickering Town Council. Coun Danks said: "Some businesses were making a small effort that didn't take a lot of money - putting a little notice on the window, rather than redoing the entire premises. It's just going a little way to meet people's needs.

"We feel some businesses aren't not doing this because they don't want to do it, they aren't doing it because they think they would have to spend so much money - when it is really not about that."

The council resolved to deliver copies of the audit to all of Pickering's businesses, in order to make it a more "disabled friendly" town.