Stoke-on-Trent City Council could have fallen foul of the Equality Act by scrapping £13,600 of its funding to the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) for its Talking Books service in the area.
RNIB’s legal team has written to the head of legal services at the council questioning an apparent lack of consultation with the charity’s service users before the cut was made, which it advises would breach the Equality Act.
Talking Books is a subscription service for blind and partially sighted people providing over 18,000 audio books delivered direct to their homes. The £13,600 subsidy provided by Stoke-on-Trent council paid for 173 users in the area to subscribe to the service, but this funding will come to an end on 31 March.
"Whilst we appreciate the Council has to make some difficult decisions, our concern is to ensure that any decisions taken by the Council which affect blind and partially sighted people should be made in a lawful manner which recognises their needs and rights," Rebecca Swift, RNIB Campaign Officer for Stoke area, said.
"The Council has failed to consult Talking Book users before withdrawing the service and RNIB continues to believe that the decision taken by the Council potentially breaches the Equality Act. We would urge the Council to reconsider its decision," she added.
Service users will now have to pay the £82 annual subscription themselves, or use an alternative Homelink service offered by the council. The RNIB advises this service is “inadequate” for the needs of blind or partially sighted people. “Because Homelink only delivers every six weeks, that would mean 36 audiobooks would have to be delivered at once, which is just ridiculous,” said a spokeswoman for the charity. RNIB has asked that the decision be reversed.
The Council confirmed it had received legal correspondence from the RNIB but said that "it would not be appropriate to say more while the correspondence is ongoing".
Recently a judicial review ruled in favour of a consortia of London charities, after a £10m funding cut was dealt to them, on the grounds of London Borough councils not fulfilling their statutory equality duties.
