Tag Archives: mobility scooters

Quingo Accessible Routes: Itchen Valley Park

Here at Quingo Scooters, we’re always encouraging you to get out and about and to explore the world around you with your mobility scooter. In our series of articles, we’re bringing various accessible routes to your attention, which you can take on your mobility scooter to discover the UK’s amazing natural beauty.

Today we’re heading down to Itchen Valley Park. Based in Southampton, Hampshire, this is an accessible popular nature park which is suitable for mobility scooter users.

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Itchen Valley Park

Itchen Valley Park features 440 acres of stunning woodland and meadows for you to explore. It has been recognised with a prestigious Green Flag award for the past four years in a row, showing how popular it is with visitors. Itchen Valley Park has a Visitor Centre on site, where you can access interactive nature-based displays and shops, as well as a café where you can indulge in tea and cake afterwards.

The Park is famous for its trails. We suggest you buy a guide to accompany you, which is available from the Visitor Centre for just 50p. Its two mile Meadows Nature Trail is really popular, allowing guests to view the historic SSSI Water Meadow. It also has a one mile long Woodland Nature Trail, which is a must-see for nature enthusiasts. This forest path boasts various wildflowers and is well known for its bluebells, which appear in spring.

Itchen Valley Park is free to visit, opening at 8.30am daily, but closing at 7pm from November to March and at 9.30pm from April to October.

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Accessibility

Itchen Valley Park is largely a suitable destination for scooter users. You can reach the venue by car and it has ample parking spaces, although there is a minimal charge for parking. This ranges from £1 for up to an hour, to £3.90 for more than four hours, but it’s free for holders of Hampshire Cultural Trust Culture Cards. Check out the Visiting Itchen Valley Park webpage to plan how to get there.

After you arrive at Itchen Valley Park, you’ll find that its Visitor Centre lies near the main road. Outside, there is a moderate ramp leading up to the Centre’s main entrance. The ramp has handrails on both sides and is 1100mm wide, making it suitable for mobility scooter users. The main entrance into the Visitor Centre is 930mm wide and you’re allowed to use mobility scooters across this building.

The Visitor Centre was built in an old barn, meaning that its key services all lie on one level. The Centre also has an accessible toilet, and there’s an easily accessible picnic and play area just outside. We should note that not all the trails are accessible, but do seek guidance from the Park’s staff on this matter as they’ll be happy to assist you. The Woodland Nature Trail is Itchen Valley Park’s most famous accessible route, having ramps and handrails for ease of access.

About Quingo

The Quingo Scooter range features six models to suit your needs and budget. New models are now available from just £22/week on our new contract hire scheme which includes all servicing and maintenance, Insurance, Roadside Recovery, Call Outs and Consumables including Batteries and Tyres. For more information on this or the latest Quingo Scooter range, please visit our website. Alternatively, if you have any Service questions you can always contact us or call customer services on 01582 430 900.

Keep up to date with the latest mobility scooter advice, tips and interesting places to visit on the Quingo Scooter Users Blog. Connect with Quingo and keep up to date with all our latest news on Facebook and Twitter.

All Quingo Personal Mobility Vehicles are provided by Forever Active, the UK’s exclusive distributor. Forever Active is a trading name of Advantage Marketing Corporation Limited (AMC).  AMC Limited is an appointed representative of First Senior Insurance Services Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. First Senior Insurance Services FSA Register number is 308478.

No DLA? No Problem – Quingo Offers Flexible Scooter Hire Services

Quingo Scooters understands that some users depend on Disability Living Allowance (DLA), to finance their mobility scooters. But the government is moving from DLA to a new system and this could deprive up to 700 people per week of their Motability vehicles. If you’re one of these people, don’t worry, as Quingo Scooters provides a range of flexible scooter hire services for you to take advantage of.

Exploring options

DLA is being replaced with Personal Independence Payment (PIP). This comes with an allowance for enhanced mobility. Due to strict criteria, you may not qualify for this allowance under the new system, even if you depend on a mobility scooter to get around. However, we are pleased to offer alternative solutions if you are affected by this.

Quingo offer flexible finance options on all of our scooters, which will allow you to own your mobility scooter. However, we also understand that not everyone wishes to buy their scooter. This is why we offer our easy term contract hire on all models. This is a more flexible option than Motability, available on a 2 or 3 year term. Most importantly, our contract hire scheme does not require you to be receiving high level DLA or the PIP enhanced mobility payments.

quingo scooters

Easy term contract hire

Coupled with a higher level of insurance, our easy term contract hire option is more flexible than Motability.

When you opt for contract hire, you can have your Quingo Scooter with just one simple monthly payment, allowing you to use your mobility vehicle without worrying about the cost. With contract hire, you’ll also receive the following benefits, ensuring you get real value for money with Quingo Scooters:

  • Fixed monthly cost: You will benefit from a fixed, low monthly rental fee that won’t rise in your hire period, making it easy for you to factor mobility into your budget long-term.
  • Demonstrations services: Before hiring a Quingo Scooter, you can ask one of our friendly and knowledgeable mobility advisors to give you a full demonstration and assessment, for free, in your home. 
  • Training programme: During your demonstration, you’ll be offered the chance to take our Blue Diamond training programme, to learn how to use a mobility scooter safely. We would advise you to take advantage of this training programme, but you won’t be required to.
  • Full customisation: After you’ve selected your model, a completely qualified Quingo engineer will deliver it straight to your door. The engineer will customise the model according to your exact specifications, so you can be as comfortable a possible when using a Quingo Scooter.
  • Maintenance services: You can ask Quingo to conduct any necessary services, maintenance or repairs on your scooter. We will include call outs in your hire contract and we will even supply you with speedy roadside scooter recovery services, every day of the year.
  • Comprehensive insurance: If your Quingo Scooter gets damaged for any reason, you can benefit from a comprehensive insurance package, when you hire one of our models. This includes fire & flood damage cover, accidental damage cover and theft cover for loss or damage. We also include tyre and battery cover, for up to two Quingo Scooters with our easy term contract hire.

Quingo Scooters

Value for money

With so many benefits, you can get real value for money when renting a Quingo Scooter on an easy term contract hire basis. Our prices start from as little as £22 per week, allowing you to get around on a safe, stable, quality Scooter without stretching your budget too thin, even if you won’t receive the enhanced mobility component in the government’s new PIP programme.

About Quingo

The Quingo Scooter range features six models to suit your needs and budget. New models are now available from just £22/week on our new contract hire scheme which includes all servicing and maintenance, Insurance, Roadside Recovery, Call Outs and Consumables including Batteries and Tyres. For more information on this or the latest Quingo Scooter range, please visit our website. Alternatively, if you have any Service questions you can always contact us or call customer services on 01582 430 900.

Keep up to date with the latest mobility scooter advice, tips and interesting places to visit on the Quingo Scooter Users Blog. Connect with Quingo and keep up to date with all our latest news on Facebook and Twitter.

All Quingo Personal Mobility Vehicles are provided by Forever Active, the UK’s exclusive distributor. Forever Active is a trading name of Advantage Marketing Corporation Limited (AMC).  AMC Limited is an appointed representative of First Senior Insurance Services Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. First Senior Insurance Services FSA Register number is 308478.

Quingo Accessible Days Out: RHS Garden Rosemoor

Here at Quingo Scooters, we encourage you to get out on your mobility scooter and explore various accessible venues across the UK. You can enjoy everything nature has to offer by heading to various garden centres. In our series of articles, we’re highlighting days out you can enjoy as a mobility scooter user and today, we’re looking at Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Garden Rosemoor.

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RHS Garden Rosemoor

Based in Great Torrington, Devon, RHS Garden Rosemoor features a stunning show garden and other natural attractions.

The main formal garden is a nature-lover’s paradise. It houses ornamental spaces featuring shrubs, roses, perennials and bulbs, along with highly cultivated long-term projects. It has various themed areas for you to check out, including a stream and rock gully, a woodland green and a fruit and vegetable garden, where you can learn how to grow your own produce. It also has a quaint cottage garden, lined with brick pathways and flowering shrub/perennial filled beds.

Here you can also visit the stone garden, where plants like camellias, acers and peonies are cultivated in a sheltered, courtyard-style space. RHS Rosemoor Garden regularly hosts seasonal shows for you to attend. It’s putting on a Winter Sculpture exhibition which lasts to 19th February 2017. Open daily from 10am to 5pm, it showcases pieces from a diverse range of sculptors. It’ll also host gardening workshops and courses across 2017, teaching you how to cultivate your own outdoor spaces.

It’s open every day except Christmas Day, from 10am – 6pm between April and September and 10am – 5pm between October and March. You can buy an adult ticket for £12.10. If you are bringing children aged five to 16, they can enter for £6.05 per ticket. You get unlimited free admission if you’re an RHS member, which you can become for as little as £44.25 per year.

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Accessing the gardens 

You can reach RHS Garden Rosemoor easily by using the information listed on the ‘how to get here’ section of its website to plan your trip. There is parking near the venue’s main entrance, which features 26 easy access parking bays. You can find out more about its access facilities on the RHS Garden Rosemoor’s official online portal.

RHS Garden Rosemoor features a level ramp leading up to its main entrance and the venue’s ground floor is easily accessible for mobility scooter users. We should note that there is an accessible toilet near the site’s main entrance and there is another behind its Wisteria Tea Rooms, located in Lady Anne’s Garden, which was named after the garden’s original creator. RHS Garden Rosemoor has good signage for accessible routes throughout the site.

The site’s formal garden is mostly accessible for mobility scooter users. Most of its offshoot areas, such as the fruit and vegetable garden, are accessible, but Lady Anne’s Garden, as well as lake and woodland walks supply limited access, due to their steps and slopes. We would recommend that you plan your route through the site’s outdoor spaces before you visit, to get the most out of your visit. Meanwhile, RHS Garden Rosemoor’s Visitor Centre, shop, plant centre, restaurant, lecture hall, library and Peter Buckley Learning Centre are all fully accessible.

Share your accessible days out with Quingo!

If you’ve been to visit any great accessible places on your Quingo or would like us to write about a particular place you have visited, we’d be delighted to hear from you! You can email your stories, recommendations and pictures by filling out the contact form on our website and we’ll feature them on our blog.

 About Quingo

The Quingo Scooter range features six models to suit your needs and budget. New models are now available from just £22/week on our new contract hire scheme which includes all servicing and maintenance, Insurance, Roadside Recovery, Call Outs and Consumables including Batteries and Tyres. For more information on this or the latest Quingo Scooter range, please visit our website. Alternatively, if you have any Service questions you can always contact us or call customer services on 01582 430 900.

Keep up to date with the latest mobility scooter advice, tips and interesting places to visit on the Quingo Scooter Users Blog. Connect with Quingo and keep up to date with all our latest news on Facebook and Twitter.

All Quingo Personal Mobility Vehicles are provided by Forever Active, the UK’s exclusive distributor. Forever Active is a trading name of Advantage Marketing Corporation Limited (AMC).  AMC Limited is an appointed representative of First Senior Insurance Services Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. First Senior Insurance Services FSA Register number is 308478.

Quingo Accessible Attractions: Scottish Seabird Centre

Quingo Scooters encourages our users to get out and about on their mobility scooters, so they can visit interesting, or even unusual places, particularly those that you didn’t think were accessible enough. In our series of articles, we’ve been shedding light on some very accessible attractions across the country that you can discover on your mobility scooter.

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Editorial credit: Edinburghcitymom / Shutterstock.com

Scottish Seabird Centre

Today, we’re going up into the UK’s most northerly country, to find out more about the Scottish Seabird Centre. Based at the North Berwick Harbour, in the county of East Lothian, it’s a marine wildlife conservation and discovery centre.

It costs £8.95 for an adult ticket to the Scottish Seabird Centre. However as a mobility scooter user, if you bring ID you’ll qualify for a £6.65 concession ticket, while children’s tickets total £4.65, but those under the age of three can enter free of charge. At the attraction, you can check out a range of marine wildlife, including seals and dolphins, as well as seabirds like puffins, fulmars and gulls. It features the world’s largest Northern gannets colony and biggest colony of puffins on Britain’s East Coast. At the moment the centre is open 10am-4pm on weekdays and 10am-5pm on weekends, opening times vary depending on which month you visit.

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What is there to do?

This venue’s main attraction is its Discovery Centre. Here you can control remote cameras, to see wildlife living in its natural habitat, across the Firth of Forth Islands. The centre also houses a wildlife theatre, where you can view short films across the day, a fish tank which features sea urchins, flatfish and Eel pouts and a scope deck, which provides stunning views of the Firth of Forth. Visit the wildlife calendar to find out which animals you can check out at different times of the year.

You can also try other activities at the Scottish Seabird Centre. It runs a Forth Ferry, which takes you on the 45 minute journey between North Berwick and Anstruther to enjoy great days on either side of the Firth of Forth. Until March 2017, you can visit its Tomorrow’s Lobster exhibition, where you can learn about the life cycle of this fascinating creature. In addition, the Scottish Seabird Centre has East Lothian’s only sundeck and a great café, which serves both gluten-free and vegetarian cuisine.

Accessibility

The Scottish Seabird Centre, which lies just 30 minutes’ drive from Edinburgh, is a fully accessible building, making it easy for you to visit as a mobility scooter user. You can travel to the Centre via train, bus, taxi, ferry, or by car, and you can use the find us tool to easily plan your trip. You’ll find disabled parking in the Scottish Seabird Centre’s carpark and adjacent to the main building.

When you arrive, go up the Centre’s tarmac-covered path to reach its step-free, 880mm wide, double doors. The push button by the side of the doors will open them and allow you to enter the Centre’s ground floor, which has a flat vinyl surface that’s suitable for mobility scooter users. The Centre also has accessible toilets and you can access its Boat Trip Booking office by going down the side road to the nearby harbour and up the adjacent ramp. Meanwhile, you can take an 880mm wide lift up to the venue’s popular Discovery Centre. Find out more by reading the Centre’s Accessibility Statement.

Share your accessible attraction with Quingo!

If you’ve been to visit any great accessible places on your Quingo or would like us to write about a particular place you have visited, we’d be delighted to hear from you! You can email your stories, recommendations and pictures by filling out the contact form on our website and we’ll feature them on our blog.

About Quingo

The Quingo Scooter range features six models to suit your needs and budget. New models are now available from just £22/week on our new contract hire scheme which includes all servicing and maintenance, Insurance, Roadside Recovery, Call Outs and Consumables including Batteries and Tyres. For more information on this or the latest Quingo Scooter range, please visit our website. Alternatively, if you have any Service questions you can always contact us or call customer services on 01582 430 900.

Keep up to date with the latest mobility scooter advice, tips and interesting places to visit on the Quingo Scooter Users Blog. Connect with Quingo and keep up to date with all our latest news on Facebook and Twitter.

All Quingo Personal Mobility Vehicles are provided by Forever Active, the UK’s exclusive distributor. Forever Active is a trading name of Advantage Marketing Corporation Limited (AMC).  AMC Limited is an appointed representative of First Senior Insurance Services Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. First Senior Insurance Services FSA Register number is 308478.

Quingo Scooters Welcome 2017!

Quingo Scooters are all about safe, comfortable, freedom combined with first class service, support and aftercare. It is this unique combination of innovative products and service that makes our customers’ journey such an enjoyable and rewarding one. It is also why our customer feedback from both our internal surveys and independent user feedback has been consistently rated at 4.9 stars out of 5 for products and 4.8 stars out of 5 for service for the last 12 months.

Start the New Year with a bang!

The Quingo team are excited to announce a brand new offer to see in the New Year! When you buy any 5 wheel Quingo before the 31st January 2017, we’ll also give you:

  • Free insurance
  • Free recovery
  • Free servicing

All of these added bonuses will be active for 3 years from purchase, and combined are worth £650! Providing value has always been at the centre of everything we do, and to that end we have been working hard to offer safer mobility with even more value.

Quingo Scooters Welcome 2017 offer january

Contract hire from just £22 per week

Our contract hire scheme means that you can enjoy all the stability, agility and comfort advantages of a Quingo 5 wheel mobility vehicle from just £22 per week (subject to terms and conditions), with fixed term payments that never increase. This makes planning your finances manageable and eliminates any unforeseen expenditure.

So what exactly does the contract hire scheme include?

  • A brand new Quingo
  • Full Scooter Insurance
  • Roadside Recovery
  • Servicing & Maintenance
  • Call-outs & Repairs
  • Tyre & Battery Cover
  • All Consumables
  • 3 Year Warranty
  • Safety Assessment
  • Delivery & Tuition
  • Fixed payments
  • No increases

Making sure your Quingo is right for you

We have a team of friendly Quingo mobility advisers who will guide you through all the benefits of 5 wheels and help you select the correct model for your specific needs.

For full details on our contract hire scheme or any of our other ‘Easy Payment Plans’ please call 0800 731 3376.

Terms & Conditions

All Quingo Mobility Scooters are available on the Contract Hire Plan provided and managed by First Senior Finance Ltd. All Insurance products are provided by First Senior Insurance Services Ltd. Both companies are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The Contract Hire Plan provides a brand new Quingo Scooter and includes Maintenance/Insurance/Consumables/Roadside Recovery subject to T&C’s, full details available on request.

You will not own the scooter at the end of the plan. Example given is for the Quingo Air 2 on the Contract Hire Plan at £22 a week over 156 weeks with an initial advance payment of £250. All Contract Hire Plans offered are subject to status. Forever Active is a trading name of Advantage Marketing Corporation Ltd (AMC). AMC is an appointed representative of First Senior and is a Company Incorporated and Registered in England and Wales, Company number 3449882, whose registered office is Sovereign Court 230, Upper Fifth Street, Central Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire MK9 2HR.

More stable than standard 3 wheelers**

Comfort & posture like no other scooter

Tighter turning than standard 4 wheelers***

The only scooter that climbs kerbs at angles

The only scooters with Auto Anti-beaching

features at a glance…

Shock absorbing safety bumpers

Easy to drive with simple controls

Up to 35 stone capacity /55 mile range

Use Easy Payment Plans or 0% Finance****

Available now from just £22 per week