A DISABLED grandmother has told of her frustration after her taxi to a Christmas dinner was cancelled.

Irene Dare, 85, who lives in a care home in Saltdean, had her South Coast taxi cancelled on the day of the family meal despite it being booked 20 days in advance.

The company, based in Saltdean, has since apologised and admitted multiple failures on its behalf.

Irene, who has rejected the offer of flowers from the taxi company, said: “We managed to get over but it wasn’t easy.

“I’ve got enough flowers, this is about the principle of the thing.”

The taxi journey from White House care home to Irene’s daughter’s house takes about four minutes.

Irene, who struggles to walk since a fall in January, was set to be seeing relatives from as far away as Iceland who had come over for the family meal on December 27.

But the taxi was cancelled the morning she was supposed to be travelling.

The family were told the only vehicle that could take her – one large enough to fit a wheelchair in the back – was on a job at Heathrow Airport.

They were also told that the taxi company had no way of fulfilling the booking made 20 days previously.

Irene’s son, Alex Dare, who lives in Spain but was visiting for Christmas, said he had to take her in his rental car, which proved a challenge.

The 60-year-old said: “When people get older, you don’t get as many family occasions so they’re very important.

“This is not the first time they have done this but before they had managed to make other arrangements.

“We got my mum into my hire car but it wasn’t easy at all.

“You can’t go on cancelling disabled people’s taxis, they shouldn’t get away with it.

“You don’t let people down like that, it’s just wrong.”

The taxi company said it had received the booking but made failures in delivering the service.

It said that despite taking bookings in advance, a driver is only found the day before.

The job was not put out to the drivers when it should have been.

The company said it was wrong to tell the family other

arrangements could not have been made.

A spokesman said: “We are sincerely sorry about what has happened.

“As a token of our apologies we have offered flowers and taxi vouchers as we did let them down.

“They were very upset and they declined that offer and we are very sorry.”