'Using wheelchair gave me new view of market issues'

The leader of Liverpool City Council has accepted there is "a lot of work to do" to make its Christmas market more accessible - after attending the attraction as a wheelchair user.

Liam Robinson was invited by disability campaigner Lisa McCann to visit the market outside St George's Hall in a chair after she said cobblestones at St George's Plateau made it a "nightmare" for wheelchair users.

Ms McCann, who runs The Wheel Life Blog Liverpool, wanted Mr Robinson to experience first hand the issues that wheelchair users face.

Mr Robinson said the experience had been "powerful and insightful" and he would be working with closely with Ms McCann on appropriate solutions for next year's event.

"It was really useful for me to experience it that way," he said.

"The way the wheels can get stuck in the cobbles and the way you have to navigate different gradients and those different kind of locations, so I found that really insightful."

Ms McCann said the experience gave Mr Robinson the opportunity to see her perspective and the challenges she encountered.

"He did find it difficult to get around the market as the wheels got stuck in cobblestones a few times," she said.

She also said she was "really confident" Mr Robinson and the events team at the council had taken her suggestions on board.

She told how they had discussed options of different types of matting and would be "working together in the future and hopefully make the markets next year much more accessible to everybody".

Mr Robinson said while the markets had been made more accessible in recent years with lowered stalls, accessible areas and ramps, there was "still a lot more we've got to do and we will do".

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