Council issue apology to disabled woman

Ayr MSP John Scott is encouraging hospitality and tourism businesses in Ayrshire to sign up for a new scheme to help get customers back into restaurants, cafes and pubs, and protect the jobs of the people who work in them.

Under the UK governement’s ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ initiative, customers will be able to get 50 per cent off their bill, up to £10 per head, when they eat out from Monday to Wednesday in August.

The move comes as part of a wider package of support measures, announced by the UK government, including slashing VAT for the hospitality and tourism industry to just 5 per cent.

Mr Scott said: “This ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme could give a real boost to businesses during the month of August, helping get customers back through their doors at a vital time, and I would encourage every restaurant, cafe and pub who wants to benefit from this to sign up for it.”

But Labour MSP Colin Smyth has warned that Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s economic package of measures won’t scratch the surface of the economic tsunami battering Ayrshire.

The South of Scotland MSP said: “The decision not to extend the furlough scheme for sectors such as tourism and hospitality and others that won’t need staff to fully return for some time, is a massive real blow to this area.

“The furlough scheme should have been extended for some sectors until next year but instead what we now see is many companies who can’t afford to pay workers lay people off, adding to the already record high level of unemployment.

“There are also gaps in grant schemes for businesses and many have lost out locally.

“That’s why I’ll continue to put pressure on both the Scottish and UK Governments and their agencies to bring forward new grant schemes, including a dedicated South of Scotland scheme to allow local flexibility in how that is allocated.”

South Ayrshire Council has been told to apologise to a disabled woman over the way her new recycling regime was introduced and implemented.

The local authority was brought to book by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) after they probed the case.

And in their findings the SPSO said SAC should apologise to the woman for “failing to appropriately consider making reasonable adjustments” over the recycling system. The local authority has to contact the woman “to seek further information” about how her disability impacts upon her capacity to use the system.

In the watchdog’s report the woman, known only as Ms C, had “concerns” about changes to the recycling system introduced by the council. She told the council that she had a disability and needed “reasonable adjustments” to be made. The report said the council visited the woman and explained the changes but she “remained unhappy” and complained.

But the council concluded that there was “no failure” to provide reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010. The women brought her complaint to the SPSO.

They said: “Although we noted that council officers had attempted to assist and engage with Ms C, it was not apparent from the evidence available that the council had appropriately taken into account how Ms C’s disability impacted on her ability to use the recycling system. We did not find evidence that the council considered the adjustments in a systematic way. We upheld Ms C’s complaint.

“Ms C complained that the council had not carried out an appropriate equality impact assessment on the changes.

“We found the council had performed equality impact scoping exercises at two stages during the implementation of changes to the recycling system. These assessments did not identify that the proposals would result in negative impacts on people with disabilities. We found that the council acted in accordance with their guidance in relation to equality impact assessments. While we did not identify failings, we suggested that the council may wish to review their assessments in light of the evidence about Ms C’s experience of the recycling system. We did not uphold this complaint.”

A council spokesperson said they fully accept the findings of the ombudsman and added: “We have apologised and resolved the situation with the individual and have subsequently passed all relevant information to the SPSO.”