Homerton Student Sues Shops Over Disabled Access

STORMZY FREE e verdict’s in Take a copy It’s brunch time! Music 26-27 e Let’s talk about science of Vulture sex. And school chocolate 9 Food 22-23 Features 16-19 70 No. 827 Friday 10th March 2017 varsity.co.uk Championing independent student journalism in Cambridge since 1947 Homerton Elections hang in the student sues balance on shops over nal day disabled access Sam Harrison Senior News Editor Candidates are making their last bids for ● Esther Leighton is suing one shop for £10,000 and votes around the University in the nal hours of the CUSU/GU elections which various others for £1,500 each began last week. e campaigning period o cially ● Claims businesses are not wheelchair accessible opened at 9am on Friday, by which time one candidate had already thrown in the towel: University Councillor hope- “ e most important thing to me ful Peter Juhasz decided half an hour Charlotte Gi ord is an apology, not getting money. e before the window opened to suspend Senior News Correspondent point is to be able to access the shops. his campaign. anks to the changes made by those Immediately the focus of the cam- A disabled undergraduate student is businesses that responded positively, paign fell on the presidency, not least taking legal action against several busi- I’m delighted to say that I’m now able because it was one of only two roles – the nesses on Mill Road, ater they ignored to get into the majority of the shops on other being University Councillor – to be her requests to make their stores wheel- the town side of the bridge, on Mill Road. contested by multiple candidates. chair accessible. Leighton has claimed that the ad- In interviews with Varsity, the three Esther Leighton, who studies at justments necessary to make a shop Homerton, was Academic A airs Of- wheelchair accessible are relatively Election survey cer on the 2015-16 CUSU Disabled cheap, sometimes costing as little as £20, Find our full analysis on Page 5 Student’s campaign, and has lived in and said they are always under £100. Cambridge since 2008, uses a powered “I am open to mediation and ne- Daisy Eyre 44.47% wheelchair. She found that many stores gotiation, but I have now begun le- did not have su cient access for disa- gal action against those shop owners bled customers, and rst began raising who have ignored multiple letters. It’s Jack Drury 33.87% complaints with the stores in 2010. Last ba ing that they would apparently year, she wrote to 28 of them. Many re- rather be sued than buy a ramp, which Keir Murison 18.93% sponded positively by apologising and would be much cheaper for them. installing ramps, and o ering compli- “I’ve been encouraged and comfort- Re-open nominations 1.73% mentary goods. However, seven busi- ed by the support I’ve received from nesses did not reply to her letters. An- other disabled people who are fed up other business responded unhelpfully. that the Equality Act is being ignored. Among the businesses being sued It’s rightly illegal to ban other groups presidential contenders set out their by Leighton for £1,500 each are Cha- from shops. ey shouldn’t be able pitches. Daisy Eyre emerged as the ex- risma hairdressing salon, Zi’s Piri Piri to say ‘no powerchair users’ either.” perienced, safe pair of hands, stressing restaurant and Penguin dry cleaners. In response to news of the court her past roles on Jesus College Student Leighton is also suing Carlos kebab café proceedings, Mill Road Traders’ As- Union as Welfare O cer and President, for £10,000, ater the shopkeeper alleg- sociation issued a statement in which and her current position on the CUSU edly ran ater her in the street, shouting they said: “Mill Road Traders’ Associa- Union Development Team. abuse and pushing into her wheelchair. tion are aware of Ms Leighton’s actions ough she was eager to deny that e business is therefore being sued for against some of the shopkeepers, how- she is a CUSU insider, her claim was “harassment, victimisation and discrimi- ever she has not been in touch with somewhat belied by her enthusiasm for nation arising from disability” as well us directly. Mill Road Traders’ Asso- the constitutional reforms which CUSU as failure to provide wheelchair access. ciation is working with our members was attempting to ratify in a referendum “Like many wheelchair users, I have in regards to Ms Leighton’s actions.” running at the same time as the other spent years being denied access to shops, e statement describes the potential elections. restaurants and cafes,” said Leighton. economic di culties that businesses on Jack Drury cast himself from the “I’ve been raising these concerns with businesses on Mill Road for years.” Continued on page 6 ▶ Girton student Fergus Laidlaw slacklining on Coe Fen LOUIS ASHWORTH Continued on page 4 ▶ 2 Friday 10th March 2017 EDITORIAL News Feminism must be inclusive Student fury over his week, we celebrated International Women’s Day. We were also reminded, thanks to a Guardian investigation, that proposed room there are “epidemic levels” of sexual Tassault and harassment at universities across the UK. hese two things are not a coincidence. It is not a coincidence that we feel the changes at Selwyn need for a day to celebrate and raise up women on the one hand, and that women are disproportionately repre- sented in high sexual violence statistics on the other. here is a particularly nasty corner of the internet Fourth-years will only be able to choose from two staircases in – and, indeed, society – which seems to become particularly vocal around International Women’s Day. Any a bid to prevent rooms from being left empty time Varsity publishes an article suggesting that, actu- ally, there are very good reasons why the day is such an important ixture in the calendar, a crowd of meninists, men’s rights activists, general bigots (whatever you want to call them) comes out of the woodwork, without Sophie Penney fail, to cry pity for men and their poor Day-less kind. Senior News Editor I imagine this is already obvious, but I have little sym- pathy. For as long as women face harassment, violence, Fourth-year students at Selwyn College even death, because of their gender, I will support one are to face new accommodation changes, measly little day in their honour. which, designed to reduce the number But that does not mean that we cannot – or should of empty rooms in College, have sparked not – be critical of how we mark the occasion. here concerns about the limited range and was a movement this week for women to down tools price of rooms. and strike, in protest over the persistence of unequal Starting from this year’s room ballot, opportunities and a substantial pay gap. For those able all students returning for a fourth year to participate in such a gesture, it is an excellent way to will only have the choice of rooms in H push back against the structures which work against us. and I staircases of Cripps Court, accom- But not everyone is able to take part. Some are not physi- modation usually reserved for irst-year cally capable, of course, and some simply cannot aford or Master’s students. to take a day of work – however worthy the cause. For he new accommodation rules will them, the goal of gender equality may be important, but not apply to Modern Linguists, AMES, or afording food or heating is more pressing. academic exchange students who have And if we are not creating spaces in our feminism had a year abroad as their fourth year is which include people of colour, non-binary people, only their third year where they are in trans women, then we are not doing it right. his seems college accommodation. Cripps Court in Selwyn College (SOPHIE PENNEY) particularly important to say in a week when Women’s Pranay Shah, president of Selwyn En- Hour host Jenni Murray wrote an article in the Sunday gineering Society, voiced the concerns of in college is a big factor in making this In an email exchange seen by Var- Times Magazine questioning trans women’s right to call Engineering students: “he most widely decision, and while most of us currently sity, Dr Mike Sewell, the Senior Tutor themselves “real women” – whatever one of those is. expressed frustrations have been over would prefer to be able to fully remain a at Selwyn provided a justiication for Varsity has come a long way in its 70 years. We have the removal of choice, inancial implica- part of the college community, if nothing the decision: “It was felt that the ben- women at every level of the team, where previously tions, and the abruptness of the changes, can be done about the options available eits to the entire College outweighed they would have been, or at least felt, shut out. But woe giving us only a week to make a decision to us, we may be forced to live out.” the wishes of a small group of students betide any of us who catches ourselves feeling compla- about living arrangements, and leaving he College has explained that the who will already have had three years cent. he ight continues, and we’d better make sure that no room for discussion.” change is designed to prevent an ex- in College, two of them with choice of we’re ighting for and with the right people.

Load more