High Court judge rejects challenge to withdrawal of wheelchair bus service

A city council has successfully defended a High Court challenge to its decision to withdraw a wheelchair bus service.

The claimants in Robson & Anor, R (On the Application Of) v Salford City Council (Rev 1) [2014] EWHC 3481 were Michael Robson, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and Jennifer Barrett, a wheelchair user with quadriplegic cerebral palsy.

Ms Barrett used the service in question four days a week to attend the Waterside Resource Centre in Salford. Mr Robson meanwhile used the service two days a week to attend the St Georges Day Centre in Salford two days a week.

They challenged Salford’s decision in June (confirmed in July) to end the service at the end of August.

The claimants’ legal team had argued that:

1. A failure to provide viable transport arrangements would be in breach of the defendant's statutory duty under section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970.
2. The withdrawal of services without lawful reassessments of service users was unlawful.
3. The decision was procedurally improper because it was taken in the absence of a lawful consultation as required at common law.
4. The council breached its statutory duty in failing to comply with the public sector equality duty imposed under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010.

However, His Honour Judge Stephen Davies dismissed the claim and refused to grant permission to appeal.

The judge concluded: “Whilst I have every sympathy for the individual claimants and their carers and families, and indeed for all those adults affected by these changes and their carers and families, and whilst I recognise that this decision will be bitterly disappointing to them, I am unable to accept that their challenge is made out, and I must therefore dismiss the claim.”

Sue Lightup, Strategic Director for Community, Health and Social Care at Salford, said the council welcomed the decision but there were no winners in the situation. 

She said: “We always believed we had carried out the consultation and initial assessments properly and fairly and we are pleased the judge has recognised that and dismissed the claimants’ challenge.

“This was always a difficult decision for Salford City Council. Faced with the loss of £118m of budget since 2010 and with more funding cuts to come we have no choice but to review every service and try to find alternative ways of meeting people’s needs."

Lightup added: “Our ultimate goal is to ensure people have a safe and suitable means of getting to day centres and the activities they enjoy. We have reached agreement on this with the majority of people and will now work with the small number of people still using our buses to reach agreement with them. This includes Michael and Jennifer’s families.

“We have been monitoring attendance at day centres carefully since the changes came in and are satisfied that it has not dropped.”

The claimants’ lawyers are now considering an appeal.

Mathieu Culverhouse of Irwin Mitchell said: “We are very disappointed with the outcome of this judicial review and the consequences this will have on so many vulnerable members of the community in Salford. The decision has placed many families in a difficult situation as to how they will ensure that their loved ones will be able to access the vital day centre services they are entitled to. 

“We are now determined to investigate every possible avenue in order to ensure that our clients will be able to access the support they require and are considering an appeal of today’s decision.”