A COMMUNITY group needs your help to improve disabled access on the seafront.

Canvey Bay Watch, which looks after the island’s Thorney Bay beach, is hoping to win a £5,000 grant. The money will go towards tarmacking the slope which leads from the gate and car park to the beach entrance.

The Calor Rural Community Fund has accepted the group’s nomination, with the first round consisting of a public vote.

The ten nominations with the most votes in each category will become finalists, with a panel then reviewing the projects.

The overall cost of the beach group’s project will be about £10,000, with the other half coming from fundraising efforts.

Group member John Webb said the tarmacked slop will make a real difference to disabled beach users. He said: “We are putting in a walkway and parking bays on the beach, along with picnic tables, so people in wheelchairs can get on the beach and enjoy it.

“It is quite difficult for people to push a wheelchair with a person in it up the slope at the moment and they usually try to push them up the grass.

“Having it concreted over would make it a lot easier and it would be nicer for children as well.”

He added that the cost was high because of work needed to ensure the disabled ramp complies with regulations, including not being too steep.

Mr Webb said: “We could just tarmac over it, but it would be a cheap skate job and if it is too steep it would be a problem for people in a wheelchair anyway.

“It will be done probably but this will cost more.”

The campaign has so far got more than 1,000 votes, meaning it is on track to make it through to the next round.

However, with voting still running for another month, the group is keen to get as many as possible to show their support.

Everyone who registers with their email address has ten votes and. Voting is now open and ends on Monday, June 26.

Visit calor.co.uk/communityfund and select Essex to find Canvey Bay Watch’s appeal.