Case No: CO/10769/2010
Date
30 October 2012
Link to judgment
Ali v London Borough of Newham [2012] EWHC 2970 (Admin)
Discrimination grounds
Disability
Summary of case
The claimant was visually impaired. He challenged by judicial review Newham’s new local guidance that was intended to be used in the design and specification of tactile paving. Newham’s guidance did not follow the national guidance produced by the Department for Transport and developed in conjunction with and with the endorsement of Guide Dogs for the Blind and RNIB.
Newham therefore had to have ‘due regard’ in particular to the ’need to promote equality of opportunity between disabled persons and other persons’ and to ’the need to take steps to take account of disabled persons’ disabilities’, even where that involved “treating disabled persons more favourably than other persons”.
Outcome
The High Court held that Newham did not have a lawful justification for departing from the relevant national guidance on the design and specification of tactile paving for visually-impaired people and that Newham’s guide was, therefore, unlawful. The application for judicial review was granted.
