Couple say they faced ‘age discrimination’ for being unable to enter Swansea student event

A shopping centre in Swansea allegedly refused access to pensioners due to a “students only event.”

Brian Jones, 77, and his wife are claiming they faced “age discrimination” due to not being allowed to enter Swansea’s Quadrant Shopping Centre on 1st October.

The couple said they were denied entry at around 5:30pm, due to the Quadrant’s annual Student Shopping Night which started at 6pm and ended at 8pm that evening.

Speaking with Wales Online, Brian said: “We’re pensioners, we couldn’t get in. We’ve been using the Quadrant every day for nearly 40 years and we just couldn’t get in. We were annoyed about it and we found out that they were only interested in letting in students later on in the evening.”

The Quadrant lies at the heart of Swansea’s city centre and is situated next to the bus station, an essential means of transport for the city’s locals. The public often uses the shopping centre as a passageway for a direct route from the centre of town to the bus station.

As a result of the shopping centre’s closure, Brian and his wife were forced to take a detour around The Quadrant, missing their bus as a result.

“The thing is that we were locked out and we had to walk around the complex then to get out to the other side to catch our buses. In fact, with the delay, we missed our bus,” said Brian.

“It’s not only the fact that us pensioners were locked out, it’s bad for business because we’ve been using the Quadrant for about 40 years and, to lock out the regulars, which is beyond belief, it’s bad business management.”

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Brian also said that he and his wife had no idea that The Quadrant would be closed for them, saying: “Not only that, we walk through the Quadrant during lunch time and get lunch. There were no notices up, no indication that they wanted to shut the Quadrant early for our age groups.”

He then continued, adding: “Well, we were sort of missed out on this age discrimination, which is in my opinion, very, very bad and we were surprised more than anything. We were shocked because we couldn’t get through our normal passageway.”

The Quadrant Shopping Centre responded in a statement to Wales Online saying: “Signage was displayed throughout the centre that day to alert shoppers of the earlier closing time.

“The event was open to students of all ages who had registered to be there. It was not open to the general public.”

Feature image credit: Google Maps

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