Pair stage sit-in bus protest

This article is published in today's Leicester Mercury:

Pair stage sit-in bus protest

A disabled man and his carer staged a sit-in protest on a bus after they were told there was no room for them.

Stuart White and Roger Hartshorn, who is in a wheelchair, tried to get a ride home to Highfields, Leicester, on the No 17 bus from Yeoman Street in the city centre yesterday afternoon.

But a mother with a young baby in a buggy were taking up the space that can be used for wheelchairs or buggies.

Mr White, 65, was told that he and Mr Hartshorn, 79, could not be on the bus as well as the woman with the buggy. But Mr White refused to budge.

The stand-off lasted around 45 minutes, with the other passengers – including the woman with the buggy – getting off and taking other buses pulling up into Yeoman Street.

A First Bus supervisor arrived and Mr White and Mr Hartshorn were taken to Highfields on the bus with no other passengers on board.

Eyewitness Selina Eagle, 21, from the city's West End, said: "The driver was trying to kick the man in the wheelchair off. The passengers were getting angry because the driver refused to drive the bus."

A spokesman for First said: "The whole idea of having easy access to buses is for us to make them more usable for people in wheelchairs and for people with children in buggies as well. But there are occasions when we will have conflicts."