School’s out for taxi row disabled boy, 11
THE family of a disabled boy say he cannot get to school after being refused taxi transport by Stockport council.
Ben Beech, 11, from Romiley, has a rare form of dwarfism known as metatropic dysplasia and uses an electric wheelchair to travel between classes.
The youngster is in his final year of primary school and will be starting at Werneth School, in Bredbury, this September.
But because he lives within three miles of the school, Stockport council has turned down his parents’ application for taxi transport and suggested ‘alternative solutions.’
However, Ben’s mum Sarah said the family cannot afford to fork out £13,000 to adapt their car for carrying his electric wheelchair and Ben will instead have to cross busy main roads to make his way to school – with the council offering a wheelchair cover for when it rains.
The council also suggested Sarah take him to school in his manual wheelchair and transfer him into the electric wheelchair once there. She works as a dental nurse and says she cannot take him to school herself every day.
A recent letter from the council’s special educational needs department said a ‘shortage’ of contractors makes it difficult to find a taxi for short journeys.
Sarah, 42, said: “Ben finishes primary school today and the secondary school have already broken up. There is nobody to speak to about housing an electric wheelchair, I don’t know how this is going to work out. What should be a cheery time celebrating finishing school, he has got this hanging over him.
“Just because there is a shortage and cuts we are going to have to let a vulnerable young person make his own way to school.
“If they don’t provide us with transport he can’t have an education, I can’t get him to school myself.”
Andrew Webb, Stockport council’s corporate director for services to people, said: “The council is committed to helping all children be as independent as they can.
“We have been working with Ben Beech’s parents to try to resolve our differences and have suggested a number of alternative solutions, including providing a second wheelchair that could be kept at school.
“Unfortunately, at this time, we have not been able to agree a way forward and the family still has a right of appeal.”