The above photo is of some of the WAAG members with the WBC Mayor. Standing, left to right David Anderson MBE, Secretary, the Mayor, Pauline Helliar-Symons with the Community Shield for community work, and David Gaskin, Chairman WAAG. Seated left to right, Margaret Reeves and Candy Egan.

The Wokingham Area Access Group (WAAG) members were collecting the Community shield for services to the community, from the Mayor of Wokingham Borough Council , Pauline Helliar-Symons at her office in Shute End Wokingham . Mayor Pauline Helliar-Symons selected WAAG for this Honour because she seen the amount of hard work WAAG have put in over the years .Pauline first got involved with WAAG when she was asked to launch this web site in 2007 .

Pauline was impressed with the work Wokingham Area Access Group is doing with retailers, and council officers in the town ,in order to improve the lives of local people, who have problems getting around the borough, by highlighting access issues in the area. Pauline also pointed out this problem is not confined to just disabled people and the elderly, but also impacts on young families with push chairs as well, especially those with twins or triplets. Pauline was very impressed with a new booklet WAAG have put together with the help of the retailers who attended access forums. The information gained from those forums ,has gone into "A Guide to serving our disabled community". The booklet help retailers, employees, and business people to understand the needs of all types of impairments including mobility, sight, speech, hearing and learning difficulties. The booklet is now being distributed free of charge to shops throughout the borough.

If anyone would like a copy they can get one from John Piasecki at Hudson Bay in Denmark Street, David Gaskin via this web site, or the Town Manager in Woodley.

written by D Gaskin Chairman , 7/5/2009

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