Walking sticks at dawn for local authorities? Older people say they are routinely ignored and failed by councils - and now they are speaking up.

A survey by Help the Aged finds that more than half of pensioners say that their local council rarely or never asks their opinion on issues that affect them, New Start (April 18) reports. One person in three aged over 60 says that councils do not meet his or her needs.

“When making decisions about public services, local authorities should be legally bound to consider the needs of [older people],” says Amy Swan, policy officer for Help the Aged. “All too often age is left off the agenda when disability, gender and race are, quite rightly, included.”

Disability may be on the agenda, but accessibility still lags behind. Council websites fail to connect with disabled people, reports The MJ (April 17). Almost half the sites that met accessibility targets last year failed to meet new, tougher targets, says a report from the Society of Information Technology and Management.

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And it's not looking any brighter in the transport sector. Transport appraisals fail to consider access for disabled people, writes Alice Maynard, of Future Inclusion, a consultancy, in Local Transport Today (April 18), While many vehicles are regulated to ensure that disabled people can gain access, in transport infrastructure - lifts, ramps and step-free access at stations, for example - no such regulations apply. “People talk about compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act, but ... there's nothing to comply with,” Maynard says.

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