A MAN with hearing difficulties said this year’s Pride festival was guilty of breaching the Equality Act.

This follows The Argus story about a terminally ill woman who travelled more than 400 miles to see Kylie Minogue headline the festival, only to be forced to sit in a tent with no view of the show.

Her grandson Liam Hackett, who accompanied her and his disabled mother, put a video on Twitter to complain, calling the situation shameful.

>>READ MORE: Man left fuming as two disabled relatives forced to sit in tent and miss Kylie's Pride show

David Routley, 60, said: “When I read this story I was devastated. It was pitifully inadequate.

“There were no ‘reasonable adjustments’ made for people with disabilities or crutches, so they have broken the Equality Act of 2010. This is a shameful state of affairs for Pride.”

>> RECAP: Brighton Pride 2019 LIVE - Pictures and updates from parade and Kylie Minogue

The Act states that goods and service providers must take reasonable steps to “avoid substantial disadvantage where a provision, criterion or practice puts disabled people at a substantial disadvantage”.

Pride organisers apologised for the incident, saying there was a viewing platform in place which could hold 100 people with disabilities. But this quickly reached capacity, with 275 people having applied for “accessibility provision”.

Many people who were unable to watch the Australian singer’s set from the viewing platform were forced to sit in a nearby tent with no view of the stage. David, from Saltdean, said he believed more could have been done to make “reasonable adjustments” for these people.

He said: “There were two areas, one for people with hearing difficulties and one for people with mobility issues.

“The area for people with hearing difficulties was fenced off and blocked and there was space in that area for those who were stuck in the tent. They could have sat there. They just needed to be wheeled or moved around the back of the stage, it was not a long way to go.”

David has lived in the Brighton area since 1985 and said he “attended some of the earliest Pride marches”.

He said there were other errors made during this year’s event.

David said: “Last year I went to Pride In The Park and was only waiting for five or ten minutes to get in through the access gate. This year I was stuck for 90 minutes.

“There was a lady behind me with crutches and members of security had to bring out chairs for her and others to sit on. Those sitting had to pick up their chairs and drag them with them every time the queue moved. You could see people were struggling.

“I have never been so ashamed about Pride. It has never been like this before.”

A Pride spokeswoman said: “Our aim is to deliver outstanding access provision and attain the Attitude Is Everything Gold Standard, and we would again like to apologise if our standards fell short of expectations this year and the work starts now on ensuring that improvements are made.

“Brighton and Hove Pride works with partners to deliver access facilities and services for the deaf, disabled, elderly and those with mobility issues, but clearly this year some of the plans did not work for some users and genuine concerns have been raised.”

Pride said many provisions were made to allow more people to access the event including an access tent, wheelchair recharging points, accessible toilets across the park, changing facilities, a high dependency unit and British Sign Language interpreters.

The spokeswoman said: “Each year there are lessons to learn and we strive to listen to constructive community feedback. We have already met with the chairwoman of Disability Pride and representatives from Ditch The Label and are in contact with Attitude Is Everything and other interested parties. We remain committed to address any concerns and make improvements where necessary.”