Interesting - Bus Company on wheelchair/Pram spaces..

[Bathsheba]

Yes -that old chestnut.

The Chair of the NCT has posted a letter on her facebook page (and has asked for it to be shared so I doubt any problems with doing this) from a bus company's solicitor - the bus company are being accused of being disabalist in not insisting that parents fold down prams/Get off etc. I've posted the info from the bus company below and will happily post a link to this thread on the facebook page as they have been asked to garner as many opinions as possible.

---------

I write further to our recent telephone conversation. As I explained, we are solicitors acting for Arriva North East Limited, which runs bus services in the North East. Arriva is currently involved in a court case brought by a number of disabled passengers. They are alleging that Arriva has discriminated against them because of its policy on use of the wheelchair space by parents with buggies. The court case is very important as it is likely to decide how wheelchair spaces in buses and trains across the UK can be used in future. Arriva?s policy is that drivers will ask parents with buggies to fold them down if a wheelchair user wishes to board the bus, but if parents cannot fold down the buggy or refuse to do so, they will not be forced to. Arriva believes that its policy is in line with the government guidelines and aims to minimise conflicts between passengers by striking a balance between the competing rights of parents with young children and disabled people to use the wheelchair space. The people bringing the claim have proposed various changes to this policy, to ensure that wheelchair users have absolute priority over the space ? the proposed changes are listed below. Arriva is obviously concerned about the impact of these proposed changes on parents of young children and their ability to use public transport. Arriva has been given until 28 January 2013 to gather evidence on the potential impacts of these changes. We would be very interested in hearing your members? views and experiences on the practical impact of the proposed changes on parents of young children. I would be very grateful if your members could respond directly to me with their views by 18 January 2013.

Proposed changes:-

1. Prohibit prams on board
2. Get drivers to ask passengers to fold down their buggies before they board the bus.
3. Get drivers to warn passengers each time they board the bus that they will have to fold their buggies and/or vacate the bus if a wheelchair user wishes to board.
4. Offer passengers with buggies onwards tickets if a wheelchair user wishes to board and buggy cannot be folded down.
5. Refuse access to buggies, prams and pushchairs which cannot be folded.
6. Refuse to continue the bus journey until the passenger with the buggy moves from the wheelchair space.
7. Insist the passenger with the buggy leaves the bus if a wheelchair user wishes to board and buggy cannot be folded down.

Kind regards,
Adam
Adam Hedley
Solicitor
(contact details follow but I thought best to remove them - Bathsheba)

Hahahahaha

Yes. You are clearly all about protecting children with disabilities...

Why is saying a child has a disability humiliating? Disability is not shameful.

I've never said wheelchair spaces shouldn't be for wheelchairs.

I'm simply saying the issue is not as simple as it is made out to be and the proposals are not fair solutions to the problem.

Is it humiliating to simply say 'actually he is disabled and is unable to sit on a normal seat'? If there was a badge system (like blue badges) that you could show if asked, would that be better? Of course the parent would then need to apply for a badge, but you need to do that to use a blue badge parking space, so this could be the same?

If people weren't hogging the spaces with prams they can't be arsed to fold, then there wouldn't need to be a campaign to make sure people who need them can access them.

If the parent and child parking spaces are full, you don't go parking in a disabled space, do you? No, because you get fined for that.

They aren't asking for one space, they are asking to stop people with prams using the bus.

There are able bodied people who sit in the folding seats and won't move, we should propose to ban them too? Yes?

So it's pretty much just point 1 that you have an issue with?

It isn't about making sure they are available for wheelchairs it is about punishing all people with prams by refusing them access to the bus. There are much more reasonable reforms they could propose if it wasn't about that such as a reservations system like on trains, pram spaces and a ban on prams/able bodied people using the disabled space... Why does it have to be about kicking prams off the bus completely?

I'm sure I read in that list that people would be told to move by bus drivers. Able bodied people would also be asked to move if the bus drivers are given the permission to not move the bus etc.

A fair solution to the problem is bloody simple.

Fold the buggy up. The problem would almost entirely disappear if people with no special circumstance simply stopped bing selfish. Then common sense could negotiate the rare instances where several different people with challenging circumstances were all caught trying to use the same space.

It is entertaining and all that, trying to make it hand wringingly complicated but it's all bollocks.

Realised now Offred can't read past that point on the list.

'punishing all people with prams by refusing them access to the bus'

Yoyu really can't see the irony in that statement can you.

The effect all those proposals would have is to make it impossible for people with prams to use buses.

That is one of the options that they are considering, the fact they are even having to consider doing that is surely an indication of how many selfish people there are out there?

Chances of them ending up doing that are slim, most of the other options are much more workable.

Yes I think that is what it is about, why is it solely about prams otherwise. It is not only prams which block the disabled space.

The effect all those proposals would have is to make it impossible for people with prams to use buses.

Only if they were inflexible, self centred individuals!

No, that would be the effect of point 1.

Offred, don't you understand? The proposals aren't 'all or nothing,' they are options and very few on this thread has suggested banning pushchairs from buses at all. It would be infinitely better to have a foldable buggy but if you can't be arsed to get one, you could still use the wheelchair space until a wheelchair user needed it.