BURY'S modern shopping facilities are the bees knees for disabled customers.

New figures released by the Bury Shopmobility organisation reveal that demands for the charity's services are at an all time high with 492 disabled people enjoying shopping trips in October.

Mild weather, the completion of Mill Gate and a larger number of accessible shops are attributed as the cause of the dramatic increase in service users.

With 1,028 users enrolled, Bury Shopmobility's equipment and volunteers have assisted with a total of 14,828 shopping trips since the scheme was launched four years ago.

A decision is pending on whether users can go to the Woodfields Retail Park using the scheme's equipment.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.