AN ELDERLY couple have hit out at a housing association over plans to ban mobility scooters from their sheltered home.

Benny and Maria Doyle, from Possilpark, have branded Link Housing’s plans “health and safety gone mad” after they were told mobility scooters may not be allowed inside the complex.

The couple, both in their 70s, have lived in a one bedroom flat in the sheltered housing facility since it opened 10 years ago.

Benny, who suffers from muscle wastage in his legs, can barely walk and keeps the scooter outside his front door in the corridor so he can get to it easily.

But the couple say they may now be forced to move house, or face being housebound, after a health and safety inspection deemed the transport a potential hazard.

A letter, sent to all the tenants in December, said a report had highlighted the dangers of mobility scooters and a new plan would be put in place for storing them elsewhere.

Benny, 76, said: “That scooter is my legs. Without it I’m dead, I would be housebound.

“It’s discrimination, I’m so angry with it.

“What made me more angry was that they hadn’t even the manners to come to my door and say what they're going to do.

“I’ve had the [scooter] I have now for a year, before that I had a bigger one and I was forced to sell it because they were more or less saying it was in the way and they weren’t happy with it.

“I got the smaller one then, and I’ve had it for about a year with no issues.

“If I could walk, and they built a hut outside which I could put it in that would be fine, but I just can’t. I cannot walk at all...I have to use a walker when I’m trying to get around the house."

Wife Maria, 72, said the plans were “health and safety gone mad.”

She said there had been a suggestion of bringing the scooter into the house but there was “simply not enough space” to store it.

Maria added: “I’m partially sighted, I could fall over it or so could Benny.

“What happens if that happens? There is no space.”

A spokeswoman from Link Housing, which runs the sheltered complex, said: “A letter was sent to residents on December 30 2015 to advise them about a Health & Safety issue, with regard to the charging and storage of mobility scooters within sheltered housing common areas, that we would need to investigate.”

She said the report from the BRE Trust highlighted if a scooter were to catch fire in a corridor it would make it a risk for residents to get out of the building, adding that an inspection was to be carried out at all the company’s sites.

She said: “We know our tenant has restricted mobility and have spoken to him, and his family, to discuss his options.

“We will continue to do so to help create a workable solution before the policy is put in place.

“We have invited tenants to work with us on drafting the policy.

“We understand that this change may affect some residents more than others, but we have a duty of care to all of our residents which is why we could not ignore the potentially fatal hazard highlighted in the report.”