Sue Hitchings and her husband Robert visited Knowle Post Office in Wells Road on Saturday to pay bills and to buy stamps.
But as they were queuing to be served a staff member approached them and said Mrs Hitchings would have to wait outside because her wheelchair was taking up too much space.
The couple believe Mrs Hitchings was discriminated against because of her disability.Well, of course they do! However, the postmaster has to consider other things:
But the sub-postmaster who runs the post office has told The Post that banning large electric wheelchairs is not discrimination but a "health and safety issue".It's quite simple - they can't fit in the shop! Naturally, that doesn't stop the usual disability advocates from demanding the moon on a stick:
Cheri Wilkins, chief executive officer of West of England Centre for Inclusive Living (WECIL), said that in an ideal world everyone with an impairment would have access to all public places and services.
She said the Equality Act 2010 was a positive step towards a reduction in discrimination, but believes there is still a lot more that needs to be done.
"This is a common problem that arises around access for disabled people," she said. "Many people do need to use wider wheelchairs and if a shop aisle is not wide enough, it does exclude them."Well, Cheri, sweetie, just what are shopkeepers supposed to do? Apply for an exemption from the laws of physics?
You really should have learned at school that two objects can't occupy the same space at the same time...
The sub-postmaster of Knowle Post Office, who refused to give his name to The Post, claims he previously checked with The Post Office Ltd and Bristol City Council that the set-up of his shop was acceptable.
He said the aisles between the Londis convenience store part of the shop and the post office part were wide enough for manual wheelchairs but not wide enough for electric wheelchairs, like the one Mrs Hitchings uses.
He said: "Large electric wheelchairs don't fit down the narrow aisles because they are too wide and there's no turning space for them.
"We go out of our way to help all our customers, especially those with disabilities.
"I have asked many people in electric or motorised wheelchairs to stay outside while we get them what they want, or a family member gets it for them from the post office.
"We have had people in motorised wheelchairs lose control in the past. One customer had his foot run over, another was hit by a wheelchair and once a wheelchair user collided with our lottery machine. It is a health and safety issue.
"I've explained many, many times to many people and normally they don't have a problem. I also informed Post Office Ltd and the city council about it, as we are providing a public service. Neither of them raised any concerns."It comes down, as it always does, to 'reasonable access'.
Sadly, some people just aren't reasonable! The law should maybe have accounted for that...
9 comments:
Yep, reasonable includes a personal service to a disabled person sitting outside the shop in their wheelchair. They don't actually need to enter the shop to get served.
Another test : how many ideas can a disability activist's brain accommodate at the same time? I think the limit has been reached in Cheri's brain.
I bet you any money that someway or another we the taxpayer pay the wages of prodnoses like Ms Wilkins
Foolish humans! The answer is all shops and other public access buildings should be pulled down and rebuilt to make room for everyone, and while you are at it all roads and pavements remodelled.
Go on. The government has plenty of money and no one would mind the inconvenience of every property and all access being rebuilt.
In the town where my mother lives the wheel chair and electric golf buggy brigade are a permanent nuisance. If you're able-bodied you are not safe in the shops or upon the pavements. Its not just that they expect you to leap out of the way, but that you're fair game if you don't.
But are we allowed to protest, to complain or simple say it's not right? No.
I'm all for making allowances, its just a pity its not reciprocated in kind.
Well, Cheri, sweetie, just what are shopkeepers supposed to do? Apply for an exemption from the laws of physics?
Now, you know the answer to that one, don't you? A client of mine had to spend thousands of pounds altering her premises for an eventuality that never actually arose as a consequence of the legislation.
Longrider, this is the golden opportunity to tell of an incident when I worked in an arts organisation in a politically correct Labour shitheap. Please forgive the extended introduction.
We, (for reasons that are not needed here) the organisation I worked for, found ourselves with a new and allegedly well connected chair of our management committee, a guy who had climbed the 'anti racist organisation'slippery career slope and was now cashing in on disabled organisations, one of which he was a committee member of and he fancied himself as a 'disabled access consultant'.
Needless to say this geezer was a gobby agressive tosser. He was the sort of wanker that Lee Jasper or George Galloway and Livingslime would probably call 'friend', which should tell you all you need to know.
He decided to do a tour of our building and was slagging off this that and another for disabled access and health and safety reasons and loudly asked why the photographic darkroom door didn't have a clear vision panel in it as per H and S regs. At this point I felt I had to pipe up and tell him that the reason why was 'because it's a 'darkroom''.
Thankfully, he didn't stay long and buggered off to some other unwanted, unnecessary,costly but taxpayer funded sinecure.
"They don't actually need to enter the shop to get served."
But it's their 'uman rite!!
"I bet you any money that someway or another we the taxpayer pay the wages of prodnoses like Ms Wilkins"
*sighs* No takes for that bet...
"A client of mine had to spend thousands of pounds altering her premises for an eventuality that never actually arose as a consequence of the legislation."
While the Underground gets a pass because 'it's too big'... :/
"At this point I felt I had to pipe up and tell him that the reason why was 'because it's a 'darkroom''. "
/headdesk
We have this issue of wheelchairs in our small shop and we're known for being pretty liberal on it. It's only for a certain period of time but all the same, I'm glad when they're not cluttering up the shop because it does stop customers moving around.
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