A man from Ramsey is taking Bus Vannin to an equality tribunal over its refusal to accept mobility scooters.

Eric Corkish has been involved in a bitter row with Bus Vannin and the Department of Infrastructure over the ban on mobility scooters for 12 months.

Mr Corkish, a former Ramsey commissioner, has one leg and is able to travel on a mobility scooter, but bus chiefs say that unlike wheelchairs, which have a standard brake and securing system, scooters do not and therefore pose a risk to their users and other passengers.

He told the Examiner that he had been seeking mediation with Bus Vannin through the Office of Fair Trading, but this had not proved successful, so he is now seeking a tribunal ruling on the ban.

Mr Corkish said: ’This has been going on for more than a year and it’s been eight months since I was last allowed on a bus, even though I got permission to go down and film myself getting on and off the bus and putting my scooter into the proper place.

’I’ve also pointed out several cases in England where most bus companies allow class two mobility scooters on. Even though they [Bus Vannin] have seen all that, they have said that Bus Vannin does not come under the Equality Act.’

In the Isle of Man, some forms of public transport are excluded from being required to carry all disabled people, although this has been questioned in Tynwald on a number of occasions.

A spokesman for Bus Vannin said the taxpayer funded company ’wishes to carry as many passengers as it can, but safely and legally’.

He added that wheelchairs ’are prescribed in the international standards to which buses are built but in essence this requirement means that a powered wheelchair can easily be carried whereas a larger mobility scooter cannot.’

It added: ’The mobility scooter industry has not yet agreed a common restraint system. As a consequence, the island’s buses cannot be tested and certified to carry mobility scooters. In the future we expect there to be clear international standards; we will buy buses that meet these standards when we can.

’In the meantime, the DoI is working with the equality advisor to see if there are any steps that we can jointly identify that would allow those who chose to use a mobility scooter rather than a powered wheelchair a way of travelling on our buses.’

Mr Corkish rejects this reasoning and is hopeful the equality tribunal can be held before the end of the year.