“Stagecoach need an awfull lot more in the way of customer service. I am unfortunatley a wheelchair user and have to use public transport as my disability would make me a liability if sat in charge of a car. I feel very sorry for the mothers in question, as a mother with a child in school I know the panic and anxiety of reaching your school for picking up time. When a wheelchair wishes to board the bus staff are required to request that anyone using the wheelchair space vacate the space and anything stowed in the area is removed to elsewhere. In the rare instances that people refuse to fold buggies or say that they simply cannot fold them Stagecoach staff are meant to offer a ticket to be handed to the next bus and the passenger is required to disembark the bus. Having a passanger disembark should only happen in rare instances and not asked as a first option but as a last resort. In response to Anna's question why should a wheelchair user take priority one major factor is that funding for the low rise buses was provided by government grants to enable transport companies to meet the new disability legislation stating that any buisness had to make sure it was accesible to all irrespective of disabilities. Also unfortunatley there is also the argument of choice - buggies are chosen over slings for practiclality and ease (and dont get me wrong as a mother I fully understand why you would choose a buggy over a sling!) and buggies are chosen for storage, shopping space, parental control, baby saftey and comfort generally over ease and space when folded, yet to be fair wheelchairs are never chosen but always used through necessity. This matter of choice means that bus companies do need to enforce the space as a wheelchair space or face the prospect of court action. I fully appreciate that using public transport with young children is not fun and folding up buggies is a great hassle and can be a very hard juggling act especially with a sleeping or hungry newborn and a lively toddler but it is not impossible and many passengers and even the wheelchair users (we dont all tend to drop children on their heads as a rule) are more than happy to offer a hand. We must remeber one thing 5 years ago I and other wheelchair users could have only caught a K or T once an hour, or had to rely on the much more expensive option to the tax payer of the ring and ride service, and buggies were folded for every single journey. And to be fair I find many more old people complain about having to move out of the space or to having to move shopping trolleys or bags whilst i manoever into the space than children and their care givers. In response to Anna's note about disabled people needing to choose weather we want priority or equality Anna would be welcome to note that disabled people generally would like equality but as everyone is human that is very unlikely, secondary to make things equal you have to level the playing field similar to a golfers handicap - things like this are set spaces on bus to enable us to travel on public transport like yourself, without this space travel would be impossible whereas for the parent with buggy they could if necerssay take the child out of the buggy and fold it up _ i'm not saying it is easy or fun just that it is possible rather than impossible.”

“I was on that bus. The 2 women werent asked to fold the buggies down. The bus driver turned round to them and said you will have to get of the bus, they werent given the option of folding their buggies down. The driver was blunt and impatient. The women had waited 20 minutes at the BHS stop with us for the F2. Then at Sidwell St were kicked of, they asked for the money back so they could pay for a taxi and the bus driver said no wait for the next one. F2s run every 20 minutes and when you need to get to school by 3.15 but get kicked of a 3 o'clock then all you are concerned with is getting to your children. The person in the wheelchair also had the option of the K, T and B1, he wasnt rushing to collect children left alone at a school gate and the women were already on the bus. If they had been at the bus stop with the wheelchair user then maybe the wheelchair could of had priority. I have a disabled child but dont ask for or get offered priority and i wouldnt want 2 babies to get of the bus and be sat in the cold so i could get home quicker, i would wait for the K. Public places and buses should all be disabled friendly but nobody should have priority over another”

“I'm the wheelchair user who had to board the bus on that day and i'm very sorry if the driver didn't say to the ladies if they could fold there buggies as i would have let them store the buggies in by my feet if i could have. I have had a long hard hard fight to get to use the wheelchair space as it should be used for a wheelchair like it's ment for.
At times i have had to wait for up to 3 and a half hours to get home in the rain with hardley and battery charge on my chair because of buggies which could have been folded but never happening., with just drivers etc asking me if i can fold my electric wheelchair or mothers calling me a cripple and to get out and walk, if i could fold it i would or if i could get out and walk i would but i can't SORRY.
It's possible to fold a buggie but not a wheelchair as i have found out in the last few years as i have not always been a wheelchair user but always had respect for them.”

“Ruth if you didnt think the article made sense thats because you were guessing our prams were empty. I was going to fetch two of my other childern from school and yes my 15month old son was in his buggy.i dont want something for nothing just wanted the bus trip i had paid for to collect my daugters from school!!!”

“I've never read such a load of small minded people 's comments in my life...... people clearly havent even read the story properly before commenting, The two mums had small 15mth oll babies in the prams and were going to collect their older children from school. Public transport is called public transport for a reason for the use of ALL public. Most busses dont even have any space at the front of the bus for mums to place folded up buggies, I have been refused on a bus before with a pram because there was already 2 other people on the bus with prams! so what would happen if there was already a passenger on the bus in a wheelchair? would the person already on the bus be asked to leave...or would the wheelchair person be told at the bus stop that there is no room on the bus!!!! what is right and what is wrong here? the mums are simply commenting that they were rudely discriminated for having small children in pushchairs and not treated fairly and definatly not spoken to like descent human beings!!!!”

“I'd guess she has more than one child (one at school and one in the buggy) - it's possible you know!”

“Mrs Hoer, this line of the article gave me the impresion you didn't have your children there .....

"We both have toddlers, and were on our way to fetch them from school, so we had prams with us."”

“Mrs Hoer. Your story doesn't make sense. In the article it says you were going to collect your children, but in your comments you say that your children where already in the push chairs. What is the truth or are you just publicity hunting and trying to get something for nothing?”

“Sorry Sally but you've misunderstood the point I was trying to make - I was hoping to take the debate beyond this particular incident and gague opinion as to whether disabled passengers should expect PRIORITY or EQUAL service as a general issue. I actually agree in this case the pushcahirs should have been folded down. I don't see why the mums in question are making a big deal that this option wasn't offered by the driver - couldn't they have suggested it themselves?”

“R BUGGIES DID HAVE CHILDERN IN,WE BOTH HAVE 15 MONTH OLD BABIES SAT IN THEM SO WHERE U GOT YOUR INFO FROM I DO NOT KNOW???”