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Disabled woman's challenges post office exemption
A disabled woman has launched a landmark legal challenge which could lead to 41 Sussex post offices being saved from the axe.
Judy Brown is battling a Government decision to exempt the Royal Mail from laws requiring public bodies to promote equality for the disabled.
She wants permission for a judicial review of plans to axe her nearest post office branch in Hastings, claiming they discriminate against her.
Her husband, Jonathan Coe, has described as an "outrage" a decision to remove the Royal Mail from the list of tens of thousands of public bodies subject to the rules.
Business Secretary John Hutton - now overseeing the highly-controversial closure programme of 2,500 post offices, including three in Hastings and 41 in total across Sussex - exempted Royal Mail from the Disability Equality Duty (DED) in 2006.
Around 45,000 public bodies are covered by the DED which is meant to ensure they pay "due regard" to the promotion of equality for disabled people in every area of operation.
A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "The Royal Mail group is still legally required to ensure that all its services are accessible to all disabled people and that it does not discriminate against disabled people in any aspects of its work, in line with the Disability Discrimination Act.
"There is nothing whatsoever in this case that reduces those obligations.
"We did not exempt Royal Mail Group from the Disability Equality Duty - a legal duty to actively promote equality of opportunity for disabled people. What we did was remove them from the specific reporting requirements set out in Regulations. We believe we have applied the law correctly."
Mrs Brown's initial application to the High Court was turned down by a judge "on paper", but was renewed in an oral hearing before Mr Justice Davis today.
Elisabeth Laing - QC for Mrs Brown - argued there was "no evidence" that public bodies complied with their duty to promote disability equality.
Miss Laing told Mr Justice Davis the judicial review challenge was directed at ensuring that decisions regarding post office closures are made "lawfully".
Although conceding she cannot "unravel" past closure decisions, Miss Laing said she was "asking for the court to investigate the decision-making process and then decide whether or not the duty has been breached".
And she claimed there was scant evidence that Mr Hutton properly considered the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act when formulating his post office closure policy.
There was nothing to demonstrate that the Secretary of State "expressly considered" whether to carry out a formal "impact assessment" in relation to the effect on the disabled, Miss Laing urged.
Mrs Brown is "severely disabled and elderly" and cares for her mother who is acutely disabled, her QC argued. She needs to use her local branch - Hastings Old Town post office - twice a week, as she has done for the past eight years.
She requires the post office facilities for banking, paying bills, and shopping. Her disabilites prevent her from reaching more distant branches, her lawyers say.
Mrs Brown wants ministers to re-examine the question of post office closures in light of the Disability Discrimination Act and is campaigning to save her own local post office from extinction.
The hearing continues tomorrow.
5:41pm Monday 12th May 2008
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CommentPosted by: bobby bigballs, Brighton on 9:50pm Mon 12 May 08
Go for it girl - I wish you all the luck in the world.
Go for it girl - I wish you all the luck in the world.
Posted by: flange, brighton on 9:42am Tue 13 May 08
Someone has to start the ball rolling...so here goes! Firstly, my Wife is disabled and it gives me great pleasure tending to her needs, postal, banking or otherwise.
Saturday just gone one of our local newsagents closed - no doubt without consideration for anyone disabled, so perhaps I might have a case there. If and when this Lady wins her case in the courts, does she think that this wins the case for all the other sub postmasters? I have sympathy with Mrs Brown and all other people similarly inconvenienced, whether able bodied or otherwise. However, the burning issue is - who does she expect to finance the re-opening of the countless numbers of offices just for a few stamps and a couple of bills to pay? What is the expression...One Man and His Dog?
Someone has to start the ball rolling...so here goes! Firstly, my Wife is disabled and it gives me great pleasure tending to her needs, postal, banking or otherwise.
Saturday just gone one of our local newsagents closed - no doubt without consideration for anyone disabled, so perhaps I might have a case there. If and when this Lady wins her case in the courts, does she think that this wins the case for all the other sub postmasters? I have sympathy with Mrs Brown and all other people similarly inconvenienced, whether able bodied or otherwise. However, the burning issue is - who does she expect to finance the re-opening of the countless numbers of offices just for a few stamps and a couple of bills to pay? What is the expression...One Man and His Dog?
Posted by: No, Way on 10:17am Tue 13 May 08
yeah, um. no.
this is a stupid idea. the branches are obviously making a loss, and as a private business, the royal mail have every right to close down branches regardless of what some stupid exemption states or whoevers human rights is (probably doesn't) breach.
seriously, people; if this bint keeps these ones open, they'll just close down other ones which might actually have customers!
yeah, um. no.
this is a stupid idea. the branches are obviously making a loss, and as a private business, the royal mail have every right to close down branches regardless of what some stupid exemption states or whoevers human rights is (probably doesn't) breach.
seriously, people; if this bint keeps these ones open, they'll just close down other ones which might actually have customers!
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