Why ‘Changing Places Toilet’ is so important

Earlier this week, we revealed that Welshpool is considering investing in a Changing Places Toilet.

This would enable travellers with a severely disabled passenger to stop in the town and use the facility. Shockingly, there is only one such facility in the whole of Powys, in Corris.

We spoke to Dylan Thomas, who is the father of Kiera (pictured), a young girl who is wheelchair-bound and he gave us an insight into why such a facility would prove hugely beneficial for the town.

He has praised the work of town councillor Folkert Veestra, who himself is wheelchair bound and is providing invaluable advice to the town council as Welshpool bids to become one of the most accessible towns in Wales.

“To most people a Changing Places Toilet won’t mean much. The first thing may will say is that we have plenty of disabled toilets. But we are talking about something totally different.

A disabled toilet is for people who have some mobility and can get themselves on and off the toilet.

My daughter, Kiera, is completely wheelchair bound as she cannot sit, stand or even roll over so when she needs to have her nappies changed she needs hoisting out of her wheelchair and onto a changing bench. A Changing Places Toilet is a place where we can do this.

In the past we have had to change her on toilet floors and a couple of years ago when me and my late wife, Teresa, took Kiera on a day out to Aberystwyth one Sunday we knew that they had these facilities in place.

When we got there we needed to change her nappy, only to find that on a Sunday both Changing Places Toilets were closed, so our only alternative was to change her on a park bench.

Would you allow your child to go to the toilet on either a toilet floor or a park bench at the age of nine? This is what not having a Changing Places Toilet means to me on a daily basis as I have to think wherever I go, have they got these facilities to change her nappy?

Thankfully, Shrewsbury has got a lovely Changing Places Toilet that we use often as it means my daughter has got a proper place to get changed.

What would you do if you did not have toilet facilities in Welshpool? The only place in Powys suitable for people like my daughter is in Corris. Powys covers a quarter of Wales and there is just one facility.

Welshpool has many tourists passing through so this facility, appearing on the Changing Places website (pictured), would encourage so many more people to stop and spend in the town. It would bring people into the town that would otherwise pass us by.

Nottingham is a positive example. It is a fairly small city but has more changing places per head of population than anywhere in Britain. This is because they have realised that it they are boosting the local economy. Welshpool could become the same in Mid Wales.”

NOTE: Welshpool Town Council is expected to discuss a possible £15,000 investment in a Changing Places Toilet next week.