FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Public Sector Bodies May Be Asked to Boycott London Hotel By Government Appointee

May 17, 2007

Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

The Chairman of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) has taken to Savoy Hotel in London to task for asking for £1000 for installation of a temporary ramp to a stage so that a dignitary who is wheelchair bound could access the awards stage.

The event was the Romantic Novelists’ Association, Romantic Novel of the Year award. The chairman of the judges was 11 time paralympian gold medallist Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson who is wheelchair bound. The association requested a ramp for access to the stage. The Savoy hotel said that the stage was not a public place that did not need to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act legislation and therefore there would be an additional fee of £1000 for a temporary ramp to be installed.

The request for extra fees for access incensed many people. Comments ranged from lack of access might break fire and safety codes, to disgust with the hotels attitude to a disabled dignitary. The hotel later reduced the additional fee for a ramp to £200.

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Buyers Guide, based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, was established in 1996 and is the leading online directory of UK companies that are targeting the £600 billion in public spending each year. To date, there are over 5,000 company listings in 1,200 categories on the www.buyersguide.co.uk website.