Readers split in buggy debate

EVENING Chronicle readers have been locked in a debate on social media this week over whether wheelchair users should have priority on buses over parents with buggies.

This follows news that Doug Paulley, a former Hulme Grammar School pupil, lost his battle to make it a requirement for mums and dads with prams to make way for wheelchair users.

The Court of Appeal was asked to rule after a woman with a sleeping baby refused to move her pushchair from a wheelchair bay so Mr Paulley could use it, forcing him to catch a later bus.

Our readers took to Facebook and Twitter to tell us what they thought of the decision, with support for both sides.

Karen Turner-Riley backed wheelchair users, saying: “The buggy can be folded up. The wheelchair can’t.

“The space is a wheelchair space fought for years ago by people chaining themselves to buses.

“There is only one place on a bus for wheelchair users. Parents with buggies have a choice. Wheelchair users do not.”

Lizzie Mirza said: “A child can be removed from a buggy and carried or sit on their parents’ knees, the disabled person cant. The signs on buses and trains normally say reserved for wheelchair users or disabled and if that is the case the buggy should be made to be folded up.”

Others spoke out in defence of parents with prams.

Deborah Ankers said: “I agree, if the pushchair is first in line. I don’t think babies are safe out of their pram on a bus.”

See the original story: Doug loses fight for a right to bus space

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