Court of Appeal Judges make unanimous landmark ruling over wheelchair priority
Bus drivers are not required by law to force able-bodied passengers to vacate designated priority spaces for wheelchair users – the Court of Appeal has ruled. The ruling has been welcomed by both FirstGroup and the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT).
Lady Justice Arden, sitting with Lord Justice Lewison and Lord Justice Underhill, allowed an appeal by FirstGroup, which had been ordered to pay £5,500 damages to Doug Paulley, 36, a wheelchair user.
Mr Paulley was denied access to a First bus in February 2012 after a woman with the sleeping baby refused to move. A judge at Leeds County Court ruled FirstGroup was in breach of its duty under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people. In a controversial ruling, Recorder Paul Isaacs declared the company should have taken measures to ensure he was not at a disadvantage when he tried to get on the bus.
Allowing the appeal, Lewison said on Monday (December 8): “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.”
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.”
Arden said: “It follows from the judgments of this court that the proper remedy for wheelchair users is to ask parliament to strengthen the powers of bus drivers so that they could, for instance, require people to vacate the wheelchair space, or to campaign for a different design of buses.
“In that way, a greater number of wheelchair users would be able to use the wheelchair space.”
The Judge said she did not underestimate the difficulties of travel for wheelchair users “or their frustration at the pace of change.”
However, the only question the court had to answer, she said, was whether it would be reasonable for FirstGroup to have to adopt the policy in favour of wheelchair users proposed by Mr Paulley. The Judge said the answer to that question “in the current circumstances is no.”
Managing Director of First UK Bus, Giles Fearnley, told CBW: “We are delighted to have received clarity. Our appeal was never about who won or lost, but to clarify the two conflicting judgements in 2013 – Arriva in Darlington and us in Leeds.
“This verdict has given our passengers and importantly, our drivers, much-needed clarification over who has priority of that space. We are especially pleased to hear it was a unanimous decision by three High Court Judges.
“Our current policy, which is to ask other passengers in the strongest polite terms to make way for those who need the space, will remain in place.
“From a driver’s perspective, this is the sensible decision. It means drivers will not be forced to make people leave the vehicle.
“We recognise how important it is that bus services are accessible for all customers – indeed we are leading the industry in improving bus travel for disabled customers. That good work will continue.”
