Mums celebrate longer opening of inclusive toilet

Coate Park Country Park has a fully accessible play area which opened in 2023

A campaign group made up of mothers is celebrating after a council agreed to open an accessible toilet at a popular attraction for longer.

Mums on a Mission, from Swindon, all have children with additional needs or disabilities, and asked for a specially-accessible changing places toilet at Coate Water Country Park, Swindon, to be open for the same length of time as the general toilets.

The Swindon Borough Council-run toilet was found locked on a recent Sunday when someone needed to use it.

The group argued this was "discrimination", and the authority has now agreed to open the toilet longer from the end of May.

Mums on a Mission successfully petitioned for an accessible toilet at the MacArthur Glen designer outlet in Redbourne, Swindon

Mums on a Mission said the fully accessible facility - which has space and facilities for changing both children and adults - should be open from 07.30 - 16.30 each day.

However, although the council agreed, it said the longer opening would be staff reliant, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A spokesperson for Mums on a Mission said: "We're so happy to have this fantastic facility at Coate Water, but we do need it to be open and accessible."

Without such a specialist facility, they said, older children and adults who still need to wear nappies or pads against incontinence need to be changed lying on the ground of a lavatory block, which is both "insanitary and undignified".

The group has campaigned for accessible toilets to be installed in a number of venues in Swindon including the Designer Outlet and are looking forward to the opening of the Fleming Way Bus Boulevard, the spokesperson added.