'We paid £50 to see Niall Horan at Co-op Live and people kept blocking our view'
The mum of a teenage wheelchair user has hit out claiming their £50 Niall Horan concert tickets left them with just a '50/50' view of the stage.
Tracy Oldfield took her 16-year-old daughter to see the former One Direction star at Co-op Live late last month. But she claims the experience was ruined by people around them standing up and blocking their view.
Tracy, 57, from Chorlton, and her daughter were sitting in one of the arena's several wheelchair accessible sections, to the right of the stage at the rear of the first tier.
Co-op Live say the venue has been designed with 'the full fan experience in mind, including substantial provision for our fans with accessible needs'. They say that they understand 'fan behaviour' caused the view to be 'partly obstructed' on this occasion.
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Tracy says that she and her daughter attend a lot of events at different venues and encounter problems for wheelchair users 'continuously'.
Speaking of her experience at Co-op Live, she said: "I was just really surprised that the access area seemed to be lower down [than in other venues]. And when people were standing up the view was blocked.
"Normally the wheelchair area is higher up - like at the AO Arena - and it's platform specifically for people in wheelchairs, but this time most people were standing.
"It seemed to be a multi-purpose area. It's like they designed it to be used for other things, rather than just wheelchairs. I'd say our view was blocked 50/50.
We go to a lot of concerts and events and there are continuously issues about things not being fit for purpose for wheelchair users. When I complained to staff they said other people had made