• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / Independent Living / Hotel faces three investigations after disabled guest’s fire safety shock
The Knighton Hotel

Hotel faces three investigations after disabled guest’s fire safety shock

By John Pring on 21st January 2016 Category: Independent Living

Listen

A company is facing three separate investigations after a wheelchair-user discovered that the reception desk of the hotel he was staying in was left unstaffed every night.

Mahmood Qureshi only made the discovery after he had already spent a night in a wheelchair-accessible room at the Knighton Hotel (pictured) in Knighton, on the Welsh-English border.

On his first night at the hotel – where he was staying during a visit to an international draughts competition – he booked an agency care worker to arrive at 9.30am, but she agreed to arrive earlier on the second morning.

When he checked with the hotel staff that they would let her in at 6.30am the next morning, he was told that would not be possible because there were no staff at the front desk between midnight and 7am.

Qureshi, who lives in Bradford, pointed out to hotel staff that he had high support needs and was staying with an older friend who was also disabled. If there was a fire, he said, he could be trapped in his room on the first floor.

He said: “It was very dangerous. We were on the first floor, and there were… steps going down to reception.

“Basically, we would be left to defend ourselves if there was a fire. I would have panicked, I wouldn’t have known what to do.”

Following his two-day stay last October, he complained to Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, which has launched an investigation into the hotel’s fire safety procedures.

The hotel is also being investigated by trading standards, and by Visit Wales, the Welsh government’s tourism team.

A Welsh government spokeswoman said: “These allegations are very concerning.  

“Visit Wales is in contact with the owners and hoping that these issues can be resolved quickly.”

Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said there was an “ongoing investigation” into the concerns raised by Qureshi.

And a spokesman for Powys council’s trading standards department confirmed that it was also carrying out an investigation into Qureshi’s concerns.

Rowena Williams, director and owner of Rural Retreats and Leisure, which runs the Knighton Hotel and several other hotels in England and Wales, said Qureshi’s complaints were “completely unfounded” and “completely fictional with completely inaccurate information”.

She said the hotel had a duty manager “on site”, but she confirmed that the hotel did not have a night porter and so the front desk was not staffed overnight.

Her husband, Paul, said the hotel had a “sleepover manager” while “the building is manned 24 hours per day seven days per week”.

He said: “In the event that a guest requires assistance out of hours, they just dial 0 from their room or the hotel number if they are not in the room, the call is then put straight through to the duty manager who is on for that evening. 

“This is common practice and is explained to all of our guests and is also outlined in the guest information booklet contained within each bedroom.”

But he admitted: “It is true that we have been asked to modify our risk assessment and procedures but this is all that was requested following an inspection that was carried out on 13 November by the fire service.”

Rowena Williams said that all the rooms had fire doors and that “the 20 stepped staircase [is] wheelchair compliant” [with wide enough steps to allow a wheelchair to sit on it] while a “risk assessment shows there is no serious risk”. 

She said: “The hotel is not being investigated by trading standards at all.  This is complete fabrication.”

She added: “The fire brigade have raised no major issues but minor issues that have been dealt with as a matter of course.”

Share this post:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on Reddit

Tags: Knighton Hotel Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service trading standards Visit Wales

Related

Four jailed over furniture scam that targeted disabled and older people
26th April 2018
Regulator fails to record key details from scheme sending COVID patients into care homes
25th February 2021
Guarded response to health and social care white paper
18th February 2021

Primary Sidebar

Access

Latest Stories

Government questioned over ‘unforgivable’ failures on vaccine priority

Regulator fails to record key details from scheme sending COVID patients into care homes

‘Why did it take disabled man’s death to lead to rail safety action?’ campaigners ask

Ministers silent after sitting on report on discrimination in politics for more than a year

Claim that government reduced the disability employment gap is wrong, experts tell MPs

Two flagship DWP disability jobs schemes slated in front of MPs

Government’s 2016 welfare reforms ‘had devastating impact on disabled people’

ONS suggests NHS disability discrimination may have increased risk of COVID deaths

DWP records ‘show Tomlinson is either a liar or a fantasist’ over engagement claims

Audio recording option set to be introduced for all PIP assessments, says DWP

Advice and Information

DWP: The case for the prosecution

Readspeaker

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2021 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web