A SPECIAL facility which will allow young wheelchair users to feed the ducks at Lochore Meadows Country Park is due to be installed this week.

A drivedeck, which is a platform which a wheelchair can be placed on, allows children to get on the move and is aimed at giving them more play experiences.

Running from the visitor centre, the track will be able to take little ones down to the all inclusive roundabout and down to the loch, allowing them to fully experience what the park has to offer.

Manager Ian Laing told the Times they were due to have training on the equipment on Tuesday and it was then expected to be fully up and running by today (Wednesday) or Thursday.

"What the drivedeck does is you can take the child's wheelchair and put it on this thing," he explained. "It is a small trailer type thing and the chair is attached to it and the child can control it back and forward along the track.

"The track is secured to a grid and there is a small infrared detector on the front which follows the track.

"What we plan to do is to have it from the park building going across to the disabled roundabout and also on a different route taking the children down to the lochside.

"Many of the children have probably never had control of their own destination and this allows them to take charge and move around."

Ian said there had been a lot of excitement on social media about the new addition.

"There may be some older models in schools in Fife who use it to allow children to move around but as far as I am aware, this is the first one possibly in the UK where it is being used for outside use in a play park environment," he added.

The track in being installed by Smile Smart Technology thanks to a £2,500 grant from NHS Fife. It being loaned to the park over the summer, however, it is hoped that a fundraising effort will secure the £10,000 needed to purchase it for good.

Anyone wanting to donate, can do so at https://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/just4children/lochoredrivedeckproject.