Sally sent a message to Bernie Ecclestone – President and CEO, Formula One Management – Email Address that said:
I feel this has to be written. We have just got in from a rather disappointing day at Silverstone. I know you are not involved directly in their circuit or ticket sales, however, I would hope that you would be interested to know how disabled fans are treated.
Our son has extensive special needs, is an electric wheelchair user and has oxygen requirements. He is a huge Hamilton and Button fan and up until this year has either been in hospital, Ill or recovering and unable to go. We were very excited to be able to take him this year. It took some planning, lots of calls and emails and I thought we were set for a good day. Below is a copy of the email I sent to Silverstone customer services to explain some of what happened. It is so unacceptable to treat people this way, it is hard to know we will never be able to go back.
Please find copy of my email here....
Hi, I just wanted to email you about our day. I was so happy to be able to take Deion to the race this year, as I said in an email, he's a huge fan but is usually too ill. The lady I spoke to on the phone seemed very helpful, I explained I needed covered seats and she sold us pit straight ones for 200 each as well as the £50 disabled parking. We were happy and excited, I thanked her profusely, even emailed you to say thankyou.
Sadly the day was not what we hoped. First parking was awful, we had to drive round for ages, got no help and a lot of attitude from one attendant, in the end we had to ask for a barrier to be moved. We then had to walk in the road to the ticket collection area as it was grass and no drop kerbs. The ticket area was across grass so my son had to wait in the rain. Then we found we had the old pit straight tickets, no cover, a dirty temporary platform with very tight corners (Even tho I explained my sons chair was large) and deions view was obscured by the bars. We had nowhere to put his oxygen and suction. I asked for some help when we had trouble, none was available. When I said the disabled facilities were inadequate, I was told that you only cater for "standard disabilities" and that Deion was "too disabled". I don't suppose you can imagine for a minute how that made us feel, I was quite devastated. Well, we left early, fought our way back to the car, then sat in a queue for 70 minutes to leave the car park, then 2 hours in traffic out of the circuit. There was no help or organisation and the extra time in the car made deion feel ill.
I need to bring it to your attention, Im sure you do not want disabled families to feel this way but nothing will change unless it is addressed. We just wanted to give our son a wonderful day, instead he was alienated, belittled and excluded. It's very sad.
Regards
Sally
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
