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To: The vale of the white horse district council

WANTED: Excellent, accessible loos at Abbey Meadow!

Build excellent toilets for Abbey Meadow so EVERYONE can use the park! We feel this is the MINIMUM required for the Abbey Meadow toilets.
• There needs to be a 'changing places facility' so disabled kids can enjoy the inclusive park, with radar key access.
• Abingdon needs at least 6 toilets for women and 4 for men plus urinals (ideally, it would be 7 of each to future proof).
• At least one toilet in each block should have grab handles and be slightly larger.
• There should be 4 changing rooms, two in the women’s and 2 in the men’s.
• There should be 4 baby changing tables, 2 in the ladies and 2 in the men’s.
• All doors should face the Meadow.
• No decorative screens please, the toilets should look nice enough without them.
• Toilets the town can be PROUD of!

Why is this important?

There are no toilets at any park in Oxfordshire that have facilities suitable for disabled children. Other counties have them!
• The replacement of toilets in Abbey Meadow is a fantastic opportunity for including toilets suitable for disabled children!
• In terms of their utility for the community using Abbey Meadow, the new toilets will actually be worse than what is there now… there will be only four individual cubicles compared with the seven toilets there now.
• Spending money on inadequate and unsuitable facilities is fiscally irresponsible.
• Not spending money on toilets for disabled children is morally indefensible.

Here is a full list of the issues with the new toilet designs

1. No facilities at all for disabled children and adults who cannot self-transfer.
• At last! There is an inclusive playground in Abingdon. This has been extremely popular with families with disabled children from across the Vale this summer and with Kingfisher special needs school, but visits are time limited by a lack of toilet facilities. Why build an inclusive playground without inclusive toilets?
2. ‘Accessible’ toilets are not actually accessible.
• They are very small and based on the minimum standards for a standard ‘hospital-type’ wheelchair. They do not consider electric chairs or the larger, specialised chairs used by most disabled children. They do not consider mobility scooters. There is no room for any kind of carer assistance.
3. Too few toilets.
• We are going from 6 toilets in traditional stalls plus disabled loo to 4 individual cubicles. 7 to 4 is a massive downgrade.
4. Child safeguarding and safety
Two of the toilet doors are on the unobserved Mill Stream side and will be further obscured by decorative screens. What is to stop and adult forcing their way into an individual cubicle after a child and locking the door? No-one can hear or see what is going on in there.
5. Health issues
• What if someone becomes ill in an individual cubicle, or has a fall?
• How will anyone ever know? They could be in there all day.
6. False alarms
• The two ‘accessible’ toilets will need emergency pulls.
• Oh what fun it will be for children pulling on those irresistible red handles!
7. Nightmare logistics of taking multiple children (and yourself) to the toilet
• With the individual cubicles, the logistics of taking multiple children becomes a mathematical logic puzzle. Which child shall I leave outside on their own?
8. Children getting locked in… this happens surprisingly regularly.
• How do you extract a child from an individual cubicle which does not have a lock you can open from the outside?
9. Nefarious activities
• A nice private unisex cubicle… unobserved, quiet and discreet… what could people possibly get up to in there?

Abingdon

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Updates

2018-02-10 16:30:08 +0000

Just to let people know that Matthew Barber, leader of Vale of White Horse district council confirmed on Friday that they will not consider including toilets for disabled children at Abbey Meadows.

The new toilets will be only four unisex cubicles, two of which are accessible to those who can self transfer. Most kids, because of the nature of their disabilities, can't self transfer.

Thus, we are in ludicrous position of having built an inclusive playground that is not in fact accessible to disabled children, as there are no toilet facilities for them.

Please write and express your views to both your town councillor and your Vale councillor, their contact details can be found on the council websites.

Sincerely and best wishes Naomi Richardson

2017-10-04 10:45:12 +0100

500 signatures reached

2017-09-12 23:31:17 +0100

100 signatures reached

2017-09-12 21:51:34 +0100

50 signatures reached

2017-09-12 21:00:14 +0100

25 signatures reached

2017-09-12 20:39:45 +0100

10 signatures reached