Accessible toilets

Efpal

I recently organised a function in a pub chosen partly because of its accessibility to wheelchair users and its decent accessible toilet. All went well until one of our wheelchair-using guests needed to use the toilet and discovered that it had been broken the previous day and was not usable. The management hadn't even tried to repair it and they hadn't told us when we arrived. This caused a lot of distress, as you can imagine.

I complained in writing and got back a standard unhelpful reply. We are very cross about all this and don't want to walk away. Any suggestions on what we might do? Are they in breach of the Equalities Act?

Wibbles

Efpal said:

I recently organised a function in a pub chosen partly because of its accessibility to wheelchair users and its decent accessible toilet. All went well until one of our wheelchair-using guests needed to use the toilet and discovered that it had been broken the previous day and was not usable. The management hadn't even tried to repair it and they hadn't told us when we arrived. This caused a lot of distress, as you can imagine.

I complained in writing and got back a standard unhelpful reply. We are very cross about all this and don't want to walk away. Any suggestions on what we might do? Are they in breach of the Equalities Act?

I would say no they are not in breach of the EA

Just because the toilets were broken and out of use on that particular day

You have to give them a while to fix things- things DO break !

It would be a breach - if the building was new and they had failed to even provide accessible toilets

But accessible toilets are provided - but it was just that they had failed to notify you - so you were annoyed - that is not a good enough reason to breach the act....

poppy123456

I see disabled toilets out of order all the time, there’s no difference here. When something is broke they can’t always get someone into fix it straight away. They couldn’t predict that this would happen. 

Just put it behind you and move on. Sorry if that’s not what you wanted to hear. 

Efpal

Thanks for the advice. It was partly the indifference in their reply to my complaint that got me. On we go

Hannah_Alumni

@Efpal I can understand how frustrating that must have been, especially in response to your complaint. I hope that you are able to find somewhere a lot more supportive when you next have a function  

Sunny_D

Hi, I'm new to the forum and have just posted my rant about disabled toilet access.  Even though things break, the people wanting your business and the requirement is for easy access to a toilet, I would expect them to get an emergency plumber to fix it.  If there is only one disabled toilet, as in most pubs, then do your best for the customers that require that facility.

joelincs

I would expect a warning before being served refreshments., if not I’d take them to the small claims, it’s cheap enough if you don’t use a money grabbing solicitor. Effectively they can’t give you an equal service which in itself is illegal but not to warn you that a vital facilities were not available to you before taking your money is a disgrace. It’s useful to know how long it’s been out of action. If you took it further you would request all details including emails of all attempts to repair it. This might well strengthen your case.