Nucleus archive hosts disabled toilet awards

NUMEROUS gold awards have been given to Caithness businesses who made the grade for disabled toilet facilities.

The presentation – held at the Nucleus archive centre in Wick – was staged by the Caithness Disabled Access Panel (CDAP) to honour the local businesses as part of the Caithness Accessible Toilet Award Scheme.

Louise Smith, project officer for CDAP, visited more than 30 disabled toilet facilities over an eight-week period to assess how well they functioned.

Speaking after the awards were handed out on Wednesday, she said: "We got the funding to do this project from Your Cash Your Caithness. It was a wee bit of money but we did quite a lot with it, visiting restaurants, hotels, public places and public toilets.

"The award ceremony was all about recognising excellence so we invited the gold award winners to meet us and collect their certificates."

Louise pointed out how seemingly innocuous details such as alarm cords being tied up or tied back can be a major problem for a disabled person.

Another common issue can occur when the sink has been placed further away from the toilet than it should be. "During construction the person responsible believes that it makes sense to utilise more of the available space. However, the sink should be reachable from the toilet to help prevent people from contaminating their wheelchairs while trying to wash their hands," she explained.

The Portland Hotel in Lybster is part of the Highland Comfort Scheme in which toilet operators allow non-customers to access their facilities. Louise found that although the hotel's toilet is not specifically designated for the disabled it is accessible and has several features that make it "disabled friendly".

The Nucleus archive toilet fitted all the five criteria to make it one of the best, according to Louise's survey. Stacks bistro in John O'Groats was also noted for its "excellent facilities".

Andrew Mackay, from the Caithness Collection group of hotels, said he received a gold award for the Norseman Hotel in Wick, noting that a newly created disabled toilet had just been opened at the hotel in Castletown but was too late to be considered for the awards.

CDAP chairperson Helen Budge was also present at the event and said she was "delighted" with how the award scheme went.

"It was Louise's idea," Helen said. "She brought it to the panel and we backed her. She went and did a talk at Awards for All and won the money. It's her that's been out doing all the work and I'm really delighted that she managed to do it and it went so well."

Any establishment not in receipt of a CDAP certificate can contact Louise Smith at louinscot@aol.com to arrange for a visit.

The toilet information will also be posted on the panel’s website at www.caithnessaccesspanel.co.uk

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.