Close Enough for Government Work

Clare Lally, weary of her three-flight front walk, demanded a wheelchair ramp on her government-subsidized house in Duntocher, England, for her daughter, 7, who’s suffered from bulbar palsy since birth, and the West Dunbartonshire Council came through promptly. A front-yard-dominating concrete platform was built in January (costing $67,000), consisting of a 10-level “snake”-style series of ramps with steel railings. Not only does navigating the “snake” take time, but Lally now complains the ramp has been taken over by neighborhood kids as a skateboard run.