People will probably be aware that Haverhill Town Council has an
unfortunate habit of discriminating against disabled people on a
regular basis at the Haverhill Arts Centre.

The latest incident involved a disabled person who relies on an
electric wheelchair to get around and requires assistance from others.
The person in question is fighting cancer, is disabled and is elderly.

Evidently the person was in a group of disabled users who had prebooked
a seat to see a show at the Haverhill Arts Centre. The individual made
it clear they were disabled and required seating accommodation that
reflected their needs.

When the disabled person attended the Haverhill Arts Centre they were
put into a seat that was not the one they had prebooked. The seat was
not appropriate to someone who was disabled, and the Haverhill Arts
Centre staff caused a bit of commotion in accommodating this person in
the inappropriate seating causing unwanted attention that the
individual felt embarrassing.

There was a health and safety threat to both the disabled user and
other users in the Haverhill Arts Centre as the individual was left
blocked in and trapped. In the event of fire it would appear such a
situation could have put the disabled user and others in danger.

There was empty seats at the front of the theatre that could have
accommodated this disabled user. The disabled user decided they did not
want to be treated like a second class citizen by the staff of the
Haverhill Arts Centre and wanted to leave. The staff persuaded the
disabled customer to stay and promised to find an alternative place to
sit. The disabled person was then reallocated next to the drum kit,
which was deafening and caused them a headache. The disabled person
then left the venue after experiencing this further distress.

The disabled customer wrote three times to Haverhill Town Council for
an apology over the distress they suffered. The Haverhill Town Council
refused to apologise or address any of the complaints of the
individual.

The individual involved the Disability Rights Commission who offered a
free service of mediation between the Haverhill Town Council and the
disabled person. There was a full town council meeting called in which
the Haverhill Town Clerk recommended that the Haverhill Town
Councillors refuse this offer of mediation. The Haverhill Town Clerk
advised the town councillors there was no case to answer and that the
disabled person would lose the case at great cost to themselves. The
town councillors, except for a certain Cllr Graham went with the advice
of the Town Clerk and rejected the offer of free mediation. The
newspapers had reported on this case and I then became aware of it
through the media and from town council agendas and minutes.

The disabled person then issued a letter of claim followed by a court
summons.  The Town Council referred the letter to their insurers, but
it appears such a situation was not covered by the insurance. The Town
Clerk then fed information into the media along the lines that there
was no case to answer, and what appears to be a scare tactic that the
town council would recover all its legal costs from the disabled
person.

For a court case to proceed fairly all parties must exchange any
documents and information they will use in court well in advance. It
appears that the Haverhill Town Council refused to divulge all
information that it was going to use in court to the disabled person.
The disabled person especially wanted to have a seating plan of the
theatre. After writing to the Haverhill Town Council and being refused
this information the disabled person went back to Cambridge County
Court.

The Haverhill Town Clerk was summoned to appear in court to explain why
he was not handing information over to the disabled person. One of the
things that the Haverhill Town Clerk alleged was that the court summons
had not been handed in on time and therefore there was no case to
answer. The judge was not impressed and told the Haverhill Town Clerk
along the lines that whilst the Town Clerk may order councillors
around, in his court, the judge decided things and not the Haverhill
Town Clerk. The judge said that as far as he was concerned the court
summons was in on time and that was that. The Town Clerk went on to say
that the relevant legislation was not in force for the alleged
discrimination. the judge said that this would be an issue for the
future court hearing, but he required that all documents that the Town
Clerk would be using in the case to be handed over to the disabled
person. The Town Clerk after feeding information to the local media
about this and a previous disabled discrimination case wanted no press
to be involved. The judge was not impressed and denied the Town Clerk
his request, considering the Town Clerks previous hypocritical
behaviour.

the Town Clerk appeared to then allege that the County court staff had
discriminated against the disabled person in seating accommodation in
the court, by this time I think the judge had had enough of the Town
Clerk and did not even bother commenting.

The Town Clerk claimed he had an expert witness from Optua who he would
be using in the court. The Town Clerk did not want to divulge the
details of the expert witness until the court case, the judge rejected
the Town Clerk's wishes and ordered him to give the information on the
"expert witness" to the disabled person.

the latest is that the disabled person is writing to Optua on the
advice of the judge giving their side of the story and asking for
comment. It is possible that Optua has been misled by the Haverhill
Town Clerk and does not even know they are an "expert witness".

What is surprising is why the Haverhill Town Council has not obtained
the services of a solicitor to deal with this case. I have asked a
Haverhill Town councillor if any funding has been set aside, or even if
councillors know about this court case. It appears councillors are not
aware of all that is going on and I suspect that officers on the
Haverhill Town Council have been keeping things under wraps. As a
council taxpayer I am concerned that this case is going to cost the
Town Council a fortune and I am hoping that the council staff and
councillors will be paying for this case out of their own pockets if
they lose.