Elderly residents living in sheltered accommodation are hoping that new plans for an on-site mobility scooter storage facility will stop them from feeling like 'prisoners' in their own home.

Betty Boardman, 86, and Bett Stevens, 76, of Lawrance Court in Southill, Weymouth, rely on the use of mobility scooters to get out, which they currently hire from a nearby shop.

The situation has left Bett feeling like a 'prisoner' in her own home, she says.  Plans for a mobility scooter storage facility at the flats have been in the pipeline since June last year and were submitted by Street Space Group, then withdrawn, but were only re-submitted earlier this month.  The proposed mobility scooter storage facility would mean that the pair could use their own mobility scooters for errands and days out.

Betty and Bett have limited mobility and there is no bus service nearby so they rely upon the use of mobility scooters.

Betty owns a small scooter, which can be used for limited distances, enabling her to drive down to a nearby mobility shop  and hire a larger scooter to go out for the day.

She struggles to manoeuvre her scooter out of her flat as she has nowhere else to store it.

Betty said: "I sometimes think that I want to go out but oh my god I just don't fancy it, all that struggle to get it out of the kitchen, which at my age is getting harder and harder every time I do it."

During the summer, the pair will spend whole days out together.

Bett said: "With a scooter, we can do what I call a round robin. It's brilliant. We go to town then all the way up the Dorchester Road and we'll do Lidl and Morrisons and Aldi and Sainsburys. We go in all of them  when we've got a scooter.

"But if we haven't got a scooter, we're restricted, and we can only go to one shop.

"We hire a scooter locally but even that has its problems as it's only open Monday to Saturday and in Weymouth, especially in the summer there's always nice things happening on a Sunday  but we can't get there, we can't do anything, so I feel like a prisoner."

Betty said: "Because both of us haven't got a partner anymore, you're stuck in your flat, you can't get out and that makes you more and more depressed."

Prior to the plans for the facility being re-submitted, the building surveyor for the site, which is managed by Housing 21, said: "Lawrance Court is located on sloping grounds and establishing a site for the buggy stores has not been easy  we have suggested three locations.

"There are technical issues with any location in addition to the sloping nature of the site and travel distances and safe access for the residents, as we must connect the landlord's electrical supply onto the site to allow the residents power for charging.

"The position of the landlord's supply is a controlling factor on where we can physically site the buggy store.

"Housing 21 has actively and appropriately challenged and is asking questions to seek a resolution to this issue."