After contacting the local CAB, about the Margate pet shop owner who is discriminating against my disabled daughter by obstructing her wheelchair access into and around her shop and has also told us that obstructions are deliberate, because she doesn't want disability wheelchairs in her shop, I talked to my daughter about taking this a little further and she agreed to me writing and sending a Registered Letter on her behalf, asking the pet shop owner for an explanation of her shocking discriminatory actions.
We are hoping that this letter will prompt this disgraceful shopkeeper, at the very least, to send my daughter an apology, but I doubt that any apology (even if it is forthcoming) will help my daughter get over the public humiliation that she has suffered.
This is a copy of the registered letter, sent on behalf of my daughter.
Last month I came into your Pet Shop called the Paw Prince and you told me I am not allowed in your shop in my wheelchair, even though every Saturday for the last two years, I have bought treats for my dog from your Margate town centre pet shop.
I cannot walk or use my right arm, so I have to shop in my powered wheelchair, but my Mum, who is also my carer, always has to move things out of the way of my chair because the access inside your shop is restricted by various obstacles such as cardboard adverts, baskets of sale items and bags of bird seed etc stacked on the floor making it difficult to choose what I want and then get to the counter to pay. However, last month, after paying for my purchases and on leaving the store you said to my Mum, "Stop moving things in my shop", my Mum replied that she "only moved the cardboard advert enough to allow my wheelchair to pass and that you should make your shop easier for disabled access and not leave things around to block floor space and obstruct wheelchair users" to which you replied, "I don't want people in wheelchairs coming into my shop"! . We said that we will never shop in your shop again and you replied "thats OK I don't want you in my shop in a wheelchair"!
We contacted the Equality & Human Rights Commission, They advised us that: Under Part 3 of the Equality Act, it is unlawful for anyone providing a service to the public in the U.K. to fail to make a reasonable adjustment without justification to the physical features of their premises if a disabled person finds it impossible or unreasonably difficult to access those premises.
You don't even need to make any alterations to your store, just to keep objects cleared off the floor, where they are a danger to able bodied shoppers too.
After receiving advise from the Equality & Human Rights Commission, we then returned to your pet shop and my Mum took some photos of your obstructed isles and quoted to you the Equality Act 2010 in regard to wheelchair accessibility and asked you to make the minor adjustments to allow access for me in my wheelchair. You replied that " you would rather serve me outside the shop than have my wheelchair come in and that you do not want any disabled persons in wheelchairs riding around your shop as the floor would not take the weight of a wheelchair and would collapse into the cellar below"!! We said, "If this is true, then she should place a weight restriction warning sign outside your shop ", then you became angry and told us to leave your shop and refused to discuss the issues with us any more.
I just want to be treated like any other able bodied shopper and have access to Margate town centre shops, the way I used to before I became disabled. I want to continue to shop in Margate and as Margate has THE most run down High Street in the country, Margate shops should welcome even disabled customers. There is strong competition from nearby Westwood Cross but your high street shop doesn't deserve the support and loyalty that my Mum, my Auntie and myself are trying to provide by shopping in Margate's high street every Saturday.
Because of my condition, my Mother and my Aunt are acting as my advocates as as they have already discussed these issues with you and you have continued to ignore us, we are explaining the issue to you again in this Registered letter. A copy of this letter is also being sent to the local Chamber of Commerce too.I feel you have breached my human rights, I also feel that I have a complaint on human rights grounds, and I would like a response from you to my complaint.
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