A Scots family turned away from an English holiday park picnic area are taking their case for damages to the Court of Appeal in London.
Paul Edwards, 48, and wife Belinda, 50, were on holiday at Flamingo Land, in Malton, North Yorkshire, in July 2010 when a family meal turned into a row about disability rights.
Mr Edwards is registered blind, the couple's daughter, Isla, 7, has cystic fibrosis and their other daughter, Melissa, 13, has Down's syndrome and autism.
The couple, from Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, wanted to buy a meal from a site restaurant, but eat it in the open on picnic benches a few feet away.
They said they thought it would be too difficult to get the family inside because Melissa's disabilities make her prone to lash out and enclosed spaces can be very stressful for her.
However, Flamingo Land said that was against its rules and park staff refused to allow the severely disabled family to eat where they wanted.
Eventually, they were given their money back and asked to leave, but they sued the company that runs the park for disability discrimination.
Claims by Mr Edwards and Isla failed, but Melissa won a £4000 damages payout, which was then overturned by another judge, before now heading the Court of Appeal.
After Judge Lord Justice Pill said there were arguable grounds, the family's battle is now set to go to a full hearing before three senior judges on a date to be set.
Melissa's appeal case is being funded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article