David Amess

Conservative Party | Southend West

David Amess MP calls for an increase in the number of Changing Places toilets in Southend West

July 2 2009

David Amess MP joined Mencap and the 11 times Paralympic gold medallist Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson to call for an increase in the number of Changing Places toilets available in Southend West and across the UK.

Standard disabled toilets do not meet the needs of all people with a disability. There are over 230,000 people who need to use a Changing Places toilet in the UK and yet only 85 Changing Places toilets are available.

Changing Places toilets are toilets which have enough space for the person with a disability and their carers, and the right equipment which includes an adult sized height-adjustable changing bench and a hoist. Without them people who need support from one or two carers to use the toilet or to have their continence pad changed either have to stay at home or their family carers have to resort to changing them on dirty toilet floors.

A British Standard published earlier this year, recommended that Changing Places toilets should be installed in larger buildings and complexes such as shopping centres, airports and motorway services, large railway stations and key buildings within town centres. However, this standard is not compulsory and that is why Mencap is calling on the Government to make the provision of Changing Places toilets in large newly built public buildings a legal requirement.

David Amess MP commented, "We all take being able to go out to the shops or to our local leisure centre for granted and yet there are nearly a quarter of a million people whose lives are severely restricted by not having the right toilet facilities. It is certainly dangerous, unhygienic and undignified for anyone to have to be changed on toilet floors and this is why I am supporting Mencap's campaign to change thousands of people's lives. This is why I have also written to Southend Borough Council to ask whether they will consider installing further Changing Places toilets in and around Southend West."