A WHEELCHAIR-bound widow was left waiting for over an hour for a taxi to pick her up in the city centre - despite taxi ranks appearing to be full.

Some believe the delay was down to taxi drivers not wanting to make the extra effort to get a wheelchair-bound person into their vehicle.

Carole Foster, aged 75, said she feels ‘very vulnerable’ as a result of the incident, which happened on Tuesday, August 8.

She endured the long-wait after she went shopping and returned her mobility scooter to Shopmobility, in Crowngate Shopping Centre.

Mrs Foster, who suffers from multiple sclerosis [MS], relied on her husband, John, to take her into the city, but he tragically died, aged 79, of liver cancer in April.

Mrs Lloyd, a volunteer at Shopmobility, said she called four different taxi firms in a bid to get Mrs Foster a taxi.

She had no success with any of them and in the end her husband left the office and personally approached a taxi driver.

She said: “It was a nightmare. This was my first trip to town since my husband passed - apart from one when my daughter’s partner took me.

“I feel very vulnerable, I’ve got MS and I’m wheelchair-bound and I have lost my husband - who used to drive me down to Shopmobility.

“I thought other than an ambulance how am I going to get home. I suspect that they [the taxi drivers] don’t like the hassle. They [Shopmobility] rang several firms.”

Mrs Foster, of The Heights, Worcester, has had MS for 43 years but has only been in a wheelchair for the last couple of years.

Mrs Lloyd, aged 79, a volunteer at Shop Mobility, said: “We had this problem before. It’s awful really.

“Carole was in a terrible state. Six weeks ago we put in 12 calls and couldn’t get anyone at all.

“My husband has gone out both times [to find a taxi in person].”

Marjorie Locke, of Gorse Hill Road, Worcester, aged 63, who also uses a mobility scooter, said she saw Mrs Foster waiting for a taxi.

She said: “She was fighting tears. I’d been out on my buggy that day and the taxi ranks were full.

“This was her first time out by herself. She was being brave.”

Ms Locke thinks that some taxi drivers avoid customers in wheelchairs because they cannot be bothered with the ramps or folding wheelchairs.

A spokesman for Worcester Taxi Drivers Association said they were sorry that Mrs Foster had trouble getting a taxi.

“[I] wonder whether it was a certain type of vehicle that they needed as some vehicles are able to take certain chairs and some can’t.

“I know that I only personally have one vehicle that can only accommodate one of my customer’s wheelchairs as it is not of standard size.

"I would ask that if anyone feels they are being discriminated against then they should take details of company or details of the drivers badge and plate number and report to Worcester taxis licensing.”