GL1 Leisure Centre Accessible Toilet| 20th May 2019

Accessibility Rating 

Physical 

Four out of five 

Sensory 

Four out of five 

Location: GL1 Leisure Centre
Bruton Way
Gloucester
GL1 1DT

Entrance

There are clearly marked disabled bays just outside the entrance of GL1 and the whole surface is level meaning an individual in a wheelchair does not have to try and find a dropped kerb.
There is no Community Toilet Scheme signage at the entrance to GL1. When entering the building there is a sign for accessible toilets immediately on the left.

The toilets are located past the café on the left.

Inside the WC

There are two large accessible toilets past the café. Both toilets are identical, apart from they have opposite transfer sides. This is positive as it means both left-handed and right-handed wheelchair users can use their chosen toilet with ease.

The doorway is 900mm wide which is slightly below minimum requirements. There is a large space outside of the toilet, so which makes entry easy with no chance of causing obstruction. The toilet is large and exceeds minimum requirements considerably, at a size of 2000mm x 2430mm, meaning there is plenty of turning space and room for an assistant.
There is a coat hook on the back of the door however it is too high for a wheelchair user of person of smaller stature to reach. These toilets used to have showers in them, so there is a tip down chair mounted on the wall and a personal locker in the corner. There are still keys in the lockers so they are still available for use, this could be used instead of the coat hook.
There is an emergency pull cord next to the toilet however it doesn’t have rings on it, which may cause people with limited dexterity difficulty in gripping them.
The toilet seat is the correct height from the ground at 48cm.
The flush is on the transfer side and has an enlarged pedal making it easy to use.
There was no toilet roll in the toilet roll holder, it was placed next to the toilet. This may cause the toilet roll to fall off when transferring.
There is sanitary bin next to the toilet and a disposable bin placed underneath a personal locker.
On my visit the hand -dryer in the first toilet was broken.
The lighting in the toilet is quite dim but it is clean and there are no distracting noises.