A coach firm from Bath has been fined £70 after one of its drivers parked for just one minute to help a disabled Christmas shopper get on board his bus.
Traffic chiefs in Oxford are now deciding whether to revoke the fine levied on Bugler Coaches.
The Lower Bristol Road firm had taken 200 people from Bath to Oxford for a Christmas shopping daytrip on Monday. Its driver had pulled onto the side of Oxford’s High Street to allow passengers to board while leaving enough space for vehicles to pass.
Designed to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act, the coach involved has a pavement-side wheelchair lift. The driver was helping a severely disabled man and his carer to use the lift when he was issued with the fine and told he had contravened loading restrictions.
The official penalty notice from Oxfordshire County Council stated that the coach had been loading between 4.17pm and 4.18pm.
The city's coach park is half a mile from the city centre and Bugler managing director Gerald Creed said: "It was dark and cold and it would have been totally unreasonable to ask the lady carer to push a wheelchair half a mile up the road to a dedicated coach park."
Ironically, the incident occurred in Disability Awareness Week.
Mr Creed added: "I am appalled that these people, who are guests in Oxford, and there to spend their Christmas shopping money in Oxford’s shops, should be treated like this. The traders of Oxford welcome visitors and I’m sure the Chamber of Commerce will be as angry about this as we are.
"If Oxford gets a reputation for discriminating against those who are disabled, a lot of people will boycott the city. Oxfordshire County Council’s website boasts of being publicly opposed to any form of discrimination against gender or disability but clearly these are just words and the reality is that officials don’t care a jot about those with problems."
Bath MP Don Foster has backed Mr Creed's concern.
He said: "I am disgusted at the insensitive treatment that this man received. It should be obvious to any person of average common sense that this case was an exception to any restrictions on loading. I trust the people responsible for this action will apologise to this man and to his carer for the treatment meted out to them on what should have been a happy day out doing Christmas shopping."
The county council refused to say whether it would agree to rip up the ticket.
It said in a statement: "We’ve received a complaint and we are looking into it. We always take complaints of this nature seriously. "We will investigate the circumstances and get back to Bugler Coaches."
3 people have spoken:
When they are finally turfed out of office, the stain upon your nation may just begin to fade.
Unfortunately, like virtually every other case of misuse of these new powers, the Council is run...
by the TORIES.
Gives you a view of things to come under a Tory government.
Tories/Lib Dem/Labour scum one and all.
Give them a clipboard and some powers and they see themselves as little Hitlers and Himmlers, out to enforce petty rules and regulations.
The powers were given to them by this Labour government to act upon.
Yes I slate Labour and believe you me should Cameron and Co come into power I will be turning my ire onto them if they carry on this way.
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