Parish council near Banbury denies any wrongdoing after complaint from disabled resident

A parish council near Banbury says it has done nothing wrong after an elderly resident, who is registered as deaf, made a complaint about what he described as a 'humiliating experience'.

Adderbury resident Philip Le Mare has long been involved with his village’s Morris men and attended last Wednesday’s (April 17) Adderbury Annual Parish Meeting to find out about the upcoming Morris dancing festival.

However, when Philip asked the chair of the parish council, Diane Bratt, about what facilities were available to those with hearing difficulties, he said he was left shocked by her response.

He said: “I approached Diane before the meeting started and asked her what facilities were available and whether there was a hearing loop.

"She told me that there were no facilities in the room they were using and that there was nothing she could do about it.”

Philip said that he then reminded her of the legal obligation of the council to provide facilities for disabled people as introduced in the 2010 Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities.

Dianne Bratt strongly disputes his side of events and says she was not rude and she did all she could to help him.

The parish council said: "The parish council believes that the parish chairman acted properly and did not discriminate, nor was she rude or dismissive as has been suggested."

Once the meeting got underway, Philip said he raised a point of order to ask whether any hearing support facilities could be provided to him as he was unable to hear.

Philip added: “This caused a commotion, with comments from the crowd at the meeting such as, ‘here, borrow my hearing aid’, and ‘just turn your aids up’.

“The cacophony of noise at this point was so much that I couldn’t hear anything at all, so I just left the meeting, feeling embarrassed and disappointed by the lack of support."

Philip, a former parish councillor himself and someone heavily involved with organising events in the village, says he is "disgusted" by the way he was treated and that it has put him off attending further meetings.

He now wants hearing facilities provided for all future meetings and an apology from the council. He has also lodged formal complaints with the council and its governing body regarding how he was treated.

When we originally published this article, we did not get a response from the chair of Adderbury Parish Council. But since then, they have replied to Philip's complaint, saying: "The parish council thanks Mr Le Mare for raising the issue of hearing loops at the Annual Parish Meeting and apologises that a hearing loop was not available in the Methodist schoolroom.

"The parish council recognises it has a responsibility to make reasonable adjustments for those who are deaf or hard of hearing wherever possible, if they are requested, but would like to make clear that the council understands that provision of such equipment is the responsibility of the building’s owner, not the parish council.

"Many older buildings used for meetings do not have such equipment but the PC will encourage owners to provide such.

"The parish council wishes to state that it would never discriminate against a disabled person nor be dismissive of such requests as has been suggested by Mr Le Mare.

"The parish council does not accept the criticism which has recently been made on social media and in the Banbury Guardian, much of which comes from people who were not even at the meeting, nor does the PC recognise these accounts as being what actually took place.

"The parish council believes that the parish chairman acted properly and did not discriminate, nor wasshe rude or dismissive as has been suggested. There were a number of people at the meeting and their accounts do not match those being circulated in the press and social media.

"These people do not wish to make their recollections public for fear of being vilified by Facebook users and the Banbury Guardian, which is understandable due to the uncalled for comments made on social media and in the press."Editor’s note: We did try to contact the chair of the parish council before we published the original version of this story but we did not hear back from her. We accept that we should have tried harder to make contact with her, or the parish council, to get their side of the events before publication. Their statement has now been included in this version.