A disabled man virtually confined to his home is now getting out and about thanks to a senior councillor.

Roy Bennett has been given a new lease of life after the cost of adapting a parking space in the garage area at the back of his Murston home was met by Swale council leader and Kent county councillor Andrew Bowles (Con) from his KCC membership budget.

Disabled for the past three years, Mr Bennett has to use a wheelchair and mobility scooter to get around.

But the effort needed by both Mr Bennett, 67, and his wife Maureen to lift either his wheelchair or scooter on to the path at the back of his home in Thorn Walk led him to become a virtual prisoner.

“I had to get up and out of the chair while my wife had to lift the chair up on to the path,” said Mr Bennett.

“And if I was using the scooter she would have to take it apart and carry it indoors or outside bit by bit.”

Mr Bennett and his wife decided the only solution was to have the pathway lowered and a slope put in up to his back gate but he said approaches to the landowner, housing association AmicusHorizon, were unsuccessful.

In frustration he turned to his ward councillor Dave Banks, who organised a petition on his behalf, and friend and former Swale councillor Ann McLean, who also uses a wheelchair.

In turn, they contacted Swale council leader and Mr Bennett’s county councillor, Andrew Bowles.

After Cllr Bowles’ intervention and agreement to pay for alternations, a parking space was adapted.