Meeting of the Parliament 09 January 2024
I thank Jeremy Balfour for bringing this important debate to the chamber. In this Parliament, we aspire to a Scotland that is fair and that has dignity and respect for all at its heart. Equal access is needed for that to be a reality, and for some people access requires specific facilities. If we are to remove barriers to ensure that everyone can live their lives to the fullest extent, we must provide those facilities.
As we have heard, although standard accessible toilets are sufficient for many, they do not meet the needs of all disabled people. That creates a huge barrier for many people, their families and their carers, and prevents them from enjoying days out or making long journeys. People who need the facilities face isolation or are cutting their days out short. Some even dehydrate themselves so that they do not need to use the bathroom.
The alternatives are unsafe, unhygienic and undignified; for example, changing on bathroom floors or in car boots. Changing places toilets provide safe, spacious and clean facilities that are designed to meet the needs of people with more complex care needs. Those facilities remove a huge barrier and enable anyone to socialise, attend appointments or even go shopping, regardless of their disability.
Unfortunately, changing places toilets provision is concentrated in the central belt and in areas with a higher population density. A black spot the size of Wales persists across the rural west Highlands. Only one changing places toilet sits in that area, in Fort William, and, unfortunately, it has relatively restricted opening hours. There is not a single changing places toilet on the journey between Crieff and Barra. That gap in provision means that people who need those facilities and live in rural areas might be less able to get out and about locally or to undertake those long journeys. With a lot of specialist medical care centralised, people who need to travel for appointments face long and very difficult journeys.
As a key point that connects much of the north and west to the central belt, Tyndrum in my constituency has been identified as a priority location for a changing places toilet. The small town on the A82 sees more than 6,000 vehicles pass through it every single day. It is a key point on many routes, just south of where the A85 and the A82 split. The community in Tyndrum has done a magnificent amount of work in identifying a site.