Bus wheelchair ruling overturned

8 December 2014 Last updated at 10:44

Bus companies are not required by law to force parents with buggies to make way for wheelchair users in designated bays on vehicles, senior judges ruled.

First Bus appealed against a court ruling, won by a disabled man from West Yorkshire, that the firm's wheelchair policy was discriminatory.

Doug Paulley, 36, was denied access to a First bus to Leeds when a woman with a pushchair refused to move.

The Court of Appeal overturned a Leeds County Court judgement in his favour.

'Request not require'

Mr Paulley had attempted to board the bus in Wetherby to visit his parents in Leeds, in February 2012.

But, he was told to wait for another one when the woman with the pushchair refused to move because her baby was asleep.

First's policy was one of "requesting but not requiring" non-disabled travellers, including those with babies and pushchairs, to vacate space needed by a wheelchair user.

In September, the county court judge had said the firm's policy was in breach of the Equality Act 2010.

Mr Paulley was awarded £5,500 damages.

'Occasionally prevented'

But earlier, judges at the Court of Appeal ruled the "proper remedy" for wheelchair users to get improvements in such cases was to ask parliament.

Lord Justice Lewison said: "The judge seems to me to have thought that the needs of wheelchair users trumped all other considerations.

"If that is what he meant, I respectfully disagree."

Lord Justice Underhill said: "It has to be accepted that our conclusion and reasoning in this case means that wheelchair users will occasionally be prevented by other passengers from using the wheelchair space on the bus.

"I do not, however, believe that the fact that some passengers will - albeit rarely - act selfishly and irresponsibly is a sufficient reason for imposing on bus companies a legal responsibility for a situation which is not of their making and which they are not in a position to prevent."

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