All change at Toddington…
One of the UK’s oldest motorway services is taking its facilities into the 21st century with installation of the latest accessible toilet concept.
Moto Toddington – also the operator’s head office – has already won a Loo of the Year Award for its toilet facilities. Now, as part of an upgrade programme, a ‘bigger and better’ accessible toilet has been incorporated in the lower concourse of the services.
Supplied by Total Hygiene, the new facility includes a Changing Places toilet, which gives adequate space in the changing area for people with profound and/or multiple learning disabilities and their carers, and other disabled people who need the help of a carer, and has additional equipment including a height adjustable adult sized changing bench and hoist. A Changing Places toilet is now ‘good practice’ under BS8300:2009 for all new build and refurbishment projects involving buildings to which numbers of the public have access.
To make the facility as inclusive as possible, Moto has also added one of Total Hygiene’s Closomat Palma ‘wash and dry’ toilets to the Changing Places facility: looking like, and capable of being used as, a conventional WC, the Closomat features integral automatic douching and drying, eliminating the need to manually cleanse with toilet tissue, improving hygiene, dignity and independence for the user and their carer. At Toddington, the Closomat also has Total Hygiene’s touch sensitive switch, which can operate the toilet by light hand or foot pressure.
Kirsty Birkin, Moto marketing manager, elaborated,
We have already installed a Changing Places toilet with a Closomat at our Cherwell Valley services. That influenced our decision to install one at Toddington, and we will consider it for future sites if the opportunity presents itself. We feel there is a real need to provide additional facilities other than the traditional ‘disabled toilet’, for those who are able to travel but need the help and assistance of others.
Total Hygiene is the UK’s largest supplier of disabled toileting solutions, and sponsor of the Changing Places campaign. Since the campaign began, over 400 Changing Places toilets have been opened across the UK. In the last year alone, over 50 Changing Places toilets have been opened at venues across the country.
