In her letter last week (No sympathy on hearing loss) Mrs J Hide raises the question of the denial of physical access to public buildings, so she may be interested in the following.

I mentioned to the caretaker of Market Lavington Community Hall that the disabled access door entry mechanism was not working.

Knowing how frustrating it is for disabled people to have to ask for assistance, especially given the layout of the hall, I persisted.

At the third encounter the gentleman made the astonishing claim that they did not have disabled people visiting the hall.

Not disabled myself (yet) I wondered what the response from other bodies would be to this clear infringement of the provisions of chapter 22 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Wiltshire Council said that it had no responsibility after the building was handed over to the owner, Market Lavington Parish Council.

The representative from the community hall committee delivered a long list of reasons for doing nothing, which even several of his council colleagues took exception to and he disagreed that the hall was breaking the law.

I await a response from Hallmark, the village hall accreditation organisation, which recently renewed the qualification with the access mechanism still unserviceable.

Neither is the problem money as the hall recently installed air conditioning.

The question is, how do we go about being a little less selfish, more aware and making life for our disabled brethren just that little bit easier?

Derek White, Hamilton Drive, Market Lavington.