Kenilworth taxi firm defends its actions after failing to pick up wheelchair user

Rob Elliott with partner Debbie Millican

A Kenilworth taxi firm has defended its actions after it failed to pick up a wheelchair user from a party, despite dropping her off in the first place.

Debbie Millican, 58, of Windy Arbour, said she was left stranded after Call Line Taxis could not provide a wheelchair-accessible taxi to take her home from the Holiday Inn after her partner Rob Elliott’s 60th birthday on Sunday March 5.

But the firm’s manager Dal Bains said because she did not give her driver a time for the return journey, there was a chance the wheelchair cab would no longer be available because the firm must provide it if another customer needed it.

As such, when Debbie phoned the office at the end of the party to ask for them to pick her up, the wheelchair cab was no longer in use.

Mr Bains put the incident down to a ‘miscommunication’ between the driver and Debbie.

He said: “Had she given us a time we would have booked the wheelchair cab in. Our driver told her that.

“We’re always there for our wheelchair customers and we never let them down. We’ve been in Kenilworth for 20 years and have always served the needs of Kenilworth residents.”

Mr Bains also insisted the firm would have happily compensated her if she had chosen to get a cab from another company to take her home.