A passenger offended by a Stagecoach Pride bus is facing a potentially significant legal bill after losing a claim for damages because he sued the wrong company.<\/p>\n
Mark Jennings complained about the \u201cRide with Pride\u201d logo displayed on vehicles running on the Whitstable to Canterbury route.<\/p>\n
Mark Jennings complained about the \u201cRide with Pride\u201d logo used by Stagecoach – but took legal action against the wrong company. Picture: Stagecoach<\/p>\n
A devout Catholic, he claimed his religious beliefs meant he suffered \u201cdistress\u201d from having to look at the rainbow livery.<\/p>\n
Mr Jennings, who lives in Kent, sued Scotland-based Stagecoach Group Limited for compensation, arguing the company had breached the Equality Act 2010 by supporting the Pride Month initiative.<\/p>\n
But a sheriff ruled the claim had been brought against the wrong company and should instead have been made against East Kent Road Car Company Limited, which trades as Stagecoach South East.<\/p>\n
Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane, sitting at Perth Sheriff Court in Scotland, dismissed the action and found Mr Jennings liable for the case expenses.<\/p>\n
The Pride-themed livery was introduced in June 2024 to support Pride Month, incorporating a rainbow design and the words \u201cRide with Pride\u201d.<\/p>\n
The court heard the design was used at the discretion of individual operating companies, with just three of the 408 vehicles run by Stagecoach South East carrying the livery.<\/p>\n
Sheriff McFarlane said: \u201cThe pursuer complained that, as a practising Catholic, the promotion of Pride events on bus services created a hostile environment for him, making it difficult to access Stagecoach buses without experiencing significant distress.\u201d<\/p>\n
The written judgment said East Kent Road Car Company Ltd had given \u201cclear and unequivocal evidence\u201d about the structure of the businesses.<\/p>\n
Sheriff McFarlane said: \u201cThe East Kent Road Car Company Limited is a separate legal entity from Stagecoach Group Limited.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe buses are for everyone\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt no time was a complaint made by the pursuer to East Kent Road Car Company Limited, trading as Stagecoach South East.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time of the pursuer\u2019s complaint, East Kent Road Car Company Limited was completely autonomous from the defender and made all its own branding, marketing and promotional decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defender had no responsibility for branding, marketing or promotional decisions made by East Kent Road Car Company Limited, trading as Stagecoach South East.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the ruling, a Stagecoach South East spokesman said the company \u201cbelieves buses are for everyone\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re proud to celebrate the diversity of the communities we serve and are committed to ensuring everyone feels welcome, respected and included when travelling with us,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognise and respect that people hold different views and beliefs, and our Pride liveries reflect our commitment to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for all our customers, colleagues and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A passenger offended by a Stagecoach Pride bus is facing a potentially significant legal bill after losing a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,980,1343,59,191,194,56,54,55,2557],"class_list":["post-830271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-canterbury","tag-courts","tag-gb","tag-kent","tag-syndicate","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-whitstable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}