Spalding shops’ guide dog guidance

Shops in Spalding have embraced a new guide to assistance dogs, produced by Guide Dogs UK and distributed to them last week by hand.

Volunteer Thelma Warren spent three hours on Friday hand-delivering leaflets to shops and establishments in town to explain the different types of dog jackets and offer window stickers.

“I’ve had an absolutely brilliant response from the whole town,” Thelma said.

Sir John Hayes MP was there in support of the scheme and praised the district’s shop staff’s welcoming natures.

He said: “In Spalding and South Holland we’re very lucky but nationally this is an issue.”

The Guide Dogs UK Access All Areas campaign was created after the group discovered 75 per cent of assistance dog owners they surveyed had been refused access to a restaurant, shop or a taxi.