“Customers love it, they think it’s fantastic!”
Not the usual feedback on a toilet, but that is the response from people visiting JD Wetherspoon’s showcase pub restaurant The Velvet Coaster in Blackpool, which opened just a year ago. “It’s used daily, definitely worth putting in,” says manager Rebecca White about the Changing Places assisted accessible toilet. She adds, “Customers tell us they came because they knew we have the Changing Places- we’re the only pub restaurant in Blackpool to have one.”
JD Wetherspoon is the first national pub chain to provide Changing Places toilet facilities, which give disabled people more space and additional equipment, including a ceiling track hoist and adult-sized height adjustable changing bench. Now, JD Wetherspoon commissions leading disabled toilet provider Clos-o-Mat to provide the resource in its refurbishments where space allows.
“Potentially up to 15million people and their carers, families benefit from larger wheelchair-accessible toilets with a bench and hoist,” explains Clos-o-Mat’s away from home toilet project manager Kelvin Grimes. “Because the user either needs physical help, changing or extra space, conventional wheelchair-accessible toilets aren’t suitable; the options are stark- to cut their trip out short, sit in their waste, lie on a toilet floor to be changed, or not go out at all.”
Under Building Regulations and British Standards, it is desirable for locations to which numbers of the public have access to provide Changing Places toilets in addition to conventional wheelchair-accessible toilets. Since the concept was first developed a decade ago, almost 900 have been opened.
Clos-o-Mat is the leading player in the supply and installation of the away from home assisted accessible toilet facilities, including Changing Places toilets. Its ability to deliver design advice, project management, supply, installation, commissioning and maintenance across the ambit of accessible toileting equipment means it is uniquely provide a reliable, single source for the whole process. Further, its website www.clos-o-mat.com, is an essential reference point for anyone considering installing a Changing Places toilet, offering white paper, 2D and 3D CAD drawings, standard layouts, and video.
