Back On The Road After Social Work Blunder

A frantic hunt for a Selkirk pensioner’s missing wheelchair ended when social work chiefs admitted they had taken it from outside his home. Retired teacher Harry Anderson, who has been paralysed from the chest down since contracting polio 40 years ago, had contacted Scottish Borders Council in January to ask them to collect a shower chair that he no longer needed.

But a council driver took the 77-year-old’s wheelchair by mistake, leaving him stranded at his home in the town’s Bridge Street. Harry said: “They really should have known the difference between the two.”

Police mounted a search for the missing wheelchair after a young neighbour said she had spotted someone carrying it towards the nearby Ettrick Water. But fears that the chair had been stolen were allayed when, following coverage in TheSouthern, the council realised their mistake and returned the elusive chair.

Harry explained: “A girl said she had seen someone taking it down to the river, but obviously it was just her imagination.” The council contacted me and apologised. They came right away to return the wheelchair and collect the shower chair. They gave me a £20 book voucher to say sorry.”

A spokesman for the social work department said: “This was an honest mistake by a driver who had been asked to collect a wheeled chair and genuinely thought he was picking up the right one. As soon as we realised what had happened, we took the wheelchair straight back to our client.”

Harry received several offers of help from readers of TheSouthern, either willing to donate wheelchairs themselves or help the former soldier claim one through organisations such as the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families’ Association (SSAFA), a charity that supports ex-servicemen and their families.