One of the most senior judges in Britain has ruled that the Appeal Court needs to intervene in a long running dispute over whether wheelchair users or pushchair users should have priority on buses
A senior judge has referred a row over whether wheelchairs or pushchairs should have priority on public transport to the Appeal Court Photo: JONATHAN LODGE
By Claire Carter; The Telegraph UK, Dec 4, 2013
One of Britain’s most senior courts will rule on whether wheelchair or pushchair users should have priority on public transport.
The issue has been referred to the Court of Appeal after a long running dispute between passengers and bus companies, and after two court cases resulted in opposite verdicts.
Lord Justice Briggs has ruled that two cases – one finding in favour of a wheelchair user and another in favour of a mother with a young baby in a pushchair – should now be heard at the Court of Appeal at the same time.
The hearing could change the current ‘first come, first served’ policy used by some bus companies where drivers can ask pushchairs to move from designated spaces if a wheelchair user needs it, but cannot force them.
Lord Justice Briggs said: “It seems to me that the fact that carefully reasoned county court decisions are coming to diametrically opposed views is a compelling reason for giving permission to appeal."
The judge has allowed Jane Elliott, a wheelchair user, permission to appeal after she lost her discrimination claim against Arriva North East. The 59-year-old was denied compensation after she told judges she was humiliated when she couldn’t get on a bus in Darlington in August 2011 because a woman with a young baby refused to move the pushchair, on two occasions.
During the hearing Judge Peter Bowers ruled that Mrs Elliott had not suffered a significant disadvantage and said that the first come first served policy of the company was a reasonable adjustment.
In a separate case Doug Paulley, from Wetherby won £5,500 in damages against First Group, a bus operator, after a judge ruled the company should have taken measures to ensure he wasn’t at a disadvantage when he tried to get on a bus and a mother with a pushchair refused to move it.
In the case Judge Paul Isaacs said it had been Parliament’s decision to “give protection to disabled wheelchair users and not to non-disabled mothers with buggies.”
Both Mrs Elliott and First Group are challenging the rulings in their respective cases. Each case involved mothers with very young sleeping babies who didn’t want to move them for fear of waking them at the time.
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