'Poor response' Disabled student in crisis had to sleep in her car

DISABLED student who was ‘clearly in crisis’ had to sleep in her car for two nights and stay in an inaccessible hotel where she could not bathe or shower for four nights because of Bristol City Council failings.

- Adam POSTANS Local Democracy Reporter

The authority has apologised and paid £400 compensation to the woman, who uses a wheelchair, after the Local Government Ombudsman upheld her complaint.

The watchdog concluded that the council’s “poor response caused her distress and impacted on her mental health”

Homes and housing delivery committee chairman Cllr Barry Parsons said it “sincerely apologised” and that the organisation had made “significant changes’ to how it records information about people’s accessibility needs to prevent it from happening again.

The ombudsman’s report said the woman, Miss B, had to leave her student accommodation at short notice and that the local authority accepted it owed her a main housing duty because she was officially classed as homeless.

It said the council decided that any accommodation would need to be on the ground floor with level access or a lift, a walk-in shower, and room to move around in a wheelchair.

The report said she was moved into accessible self-contained interim accommodation in August 2024 but experienced antisocial behaviour from neighbours and told the authority she felt unsafe, but that it did not act quickly enough.