By Marjory Inglis, health reporter

A DUNDEE SOLDIER will have to turn to charity to get help to adapt his garden to make a “run in” for a motorised scooter.

Yesterday The Courier told of 95-year-old Alexander Ramsay (pictured), the war veteran with two artificial knees and arthritis in his hips who was “not disabled enough” to qualify for help from Dundee City Council.

The independent widower, who does his own laundry and shopping, has lived in his Kirkton council house for the last 61 years.

He does not want to move but would like a break made in his fence and a “run-in” to suit a motorised scooter that would give him more freedom to roam.

The council said they were unable to help, and last night social work and health convener Councillor Helen Wright said the soldier had been advised to turn to charity.

“It is important that we provide assistance, wherever possible, to people to enable them to continue to live independently,” she said.

“Social work officers have given Mr Ramsay information and advice about how he could get charitable funding for the motorised scooter and funding for alterations to the garden area for storing it.

“I have now asked senior officers within my department to liaise with their colleagues in housing to look at any other options that may help in this particular case.”

Mr Ramsay’s councillor Ian Borthwick last night condemned the response as “lamentable,” saying it fell short of what he would have expected.

“This is a dignified, self-reliant man and I think it is important he maintains his dignity,” he said.

Previously the councillor explained he had been trying for months to get help for the soldier and had been told by council officials he did not fit the criteria for their help because he was “not disabled enough.”

Mr Ramsay would have to be almost permanently confined to a wheelchair to qualify for a ramp.

The soldier is prepared to buy the motorised scooter himself, but does not own his home and needs help to get access for any such vehicle.

Scores of homes in the area have ramps and runways.

Yesterday neighbour Colin Johnstone, hobbling on crutches after major surgery, said he could well understand the plight of the veteran.

He said the majority of homes which had been adapted with runways for cars and other improvements had been bought and were no longer owned by the city council or Abertay Housing Association, which does have some property in Mr Johnstone’s street.

His own run-in for the car was constructed about 14 years ago.

“That was simply to get the car off the road because it’s not a very wide street and we are right next door to the school, but I can see that the old boy up there would need a ramp put in to get a scooter in there.”