A new ramp installed at the home of an 80-year old Keighley woman has given her a new lease of life.

Mrs Agnes Simms, of Holme Mill Lane, had been trying to get a wheelchair ramp fitted in her garden for the past three years.

Aire Wharfe Community Housing Trust recently financed the work, which means that Mrs Simms can finally manoeuvre her wheelchair and scooter in and out of her garden.

She explains: "I had a heart operation about three years ago and since then I've not been able to walk about so easily.

"By the time I'd walked out of my garden and up two steep steps I was tired.

"When I stopped driving last year I lost my independence really, but the scooter I've got is brilliant.

"The only trouble was I couldn't get the scooter from my garden and up the two garden steps. I asked and asked Bradford Council to sort it out and nothing was done."

The work was done by the housing trust in early March of this year and Mrs Simms says it has given her a new lease of life.

"It's just been a liberation. I may be 80 but I like my independence, and without the ramp I was just a prisoner in my own home," she says.

Carol Bridges, Executive Director of Aire Wharfe Community Housing Trust, says: "Mrs Simms is one of the first tenants in the area to benefit from these works being carried out.

"Aire Wharfe Community Housing Trust is to release £109,000 for major adaptation works in the area.

"This includes such things as ramps, stairlifts, level access and over-bath showers.

"These works are being carried out in priority order and are essential to allow people with disabilities to remain in their own homes and live independently."

She continues: "Provision for aids and adaptations was a commitment given in the stock transfer offer document and is provided on a needs basis, which is not geographically based. "