This casual disablism has infected the UK since the Tories took office
This trolley is in a space that should be free for wheelchair users.
A disabled woman was deprived of the wheelchair space she had booked on a train because the company said it was “policy” to park a catering trolley there.
It is a symptom of the casual disablism that has infected the UK since the Conservatives took office and started treating people with disabilities as less-than-human.
Hollie Brooks was told if a second wheelchair user had booked a seat on the train, she could have had her place.
Apparently her money, on its own, simply isn’t good enough. Charming.
A disabled woman was left feeling “like a second-class citizen” when she boarded a Greater Anglia train to find her allotted wheelchair space taken up with a catering trolley and boxes of food.
Hollie Brooks, a 29-year-old audience development manager and freelance journalist from Durham, was travelling from Norwich to Colchester on 30 August when the incident occurred.
Having booked a wheelchair space with a companion seat well in advance, Hollie was surprised to hear from a member of staff on the platform that the trolley was currently in her space, but was assured it would be moved.
Upon boarding, Hollie discovered that the cart was still in the space she had booked.
The member of staff who was manning the trolley told Hollie it was Greater Anglia policy to use one of the wheelchair spaces in first class for catering facilities if the buffet car wasn’t in use.
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Hopefully, this lady has made an official complaint about such contemptuous treatment.
Strangely I used a greater anglia train on this route today, there was a section for the trollies in first class, which could not be mistaken as for being anything else because there are locks to hold the trollies in place whilst not in use. I find it hard to work out why they would be anywhere else.