Pram ban: 'Lothian Buses is being inexplicably inflexible'

THE plea by senior councillor Steve Cardownie for Lothian Buses to exercise some common sense over the ongoing row over allowing mums with prams to use its buses has a familiar ring. He is merely echoing what this newspaper called for last week when the growing concerns over the ban were revealed.

There is no disagreement over the fact that the company has obligations to meet under the Disability Discrimination Act, which clearly spells out it must make provision to carry disabled passengers, particularly those in wheelchairs. With limited floor space it is clear that both rigid prams and wheelchairs cannot be accommodated simultaneously. But how often does this happen? So far, Lothian Buses is unable or unwilling to say.

It would be easy to have some sympathy with the company were this problem not of its own making. Before it re-issued guidelines to drivers instructing them not to allow mums with prams on board things appeared to work well.

Other operators like First and Stagecoach have adopted a more flexible approach and have not introduced a blanket policy banning prams. But Lothian Buses continues to be inexplicably inflexible over the issue.

While the company's aim is clearly to be seen as not to discriminate against disabled people the outcome of its actions is that it is now discriminating against mums with prams.

And this appears to be spilling over into its customer relations policy with one young mum who bought a season ticket to allow her and her baby to travel regularly revealing today she has been being refused a refund on learning she will not be able to board a bus with a pram.

It would be thought in the financial position in which Lothian Buses currently finds itself – an unprecedented five per dent drop in passengers and considering axing routes as profits tumble with the double whammy of rising fuel costs – that it would seek to encourage every passenger possible to use its services instead of alienating any sector, however small.

The company is not being asked to tell drivers that they must allow all passengers with prams to board. They are simply being asked to allow drivers to use their common sense and discretion to allow them to do so if the wheelchair space is unoccupied.

By informing pram passengers they may be asked to leave the bus should the space be required by a wheelchair user during the journey they will be meeting their obligations under current legislation.

In return for this concession it is hard to imagine that most mums would not comply, so what is the problem? Surely the bosses are big enough to admit they've got it wrong.