Wasn't allowed to use disabled toilet despite the fact no other toilet was available. AIBU?

In which case the local authority should be doing the right thing and making public toilets available to the public, not forcing non disabled people to seek permission to use a facility that was not meant for them.

Well the op said she wasn't disabled then argued her point, nobody should have to beg to use a toilet, but it was a changing places toilet and as numerous posters have said they have expensive equipment in them so i can see why they wouldn't let some random in it,

Sometimes it is not about doing things right, it is about doing the right thing.

Put yourself in the position of someone with a stoma bag that’s leaking and it’s an emergency situation. An accessible toilet means you have priority but there’s a long queue of people with no visible disability. You are now in a position where your choices are to allow the bag to burst, or announce your disability and predicament to the whole queue and hope that someone will take pity on you. I have no problem with those who have hidden disabilities. What I do have a problem with is posters like OP who think they have an automatic right to an accessible toilet because nothing else is available.

The problem here is that the mainstream toilets are locked. Accessible toilets are not meant to be substitutes in these cases, but councils rely on all and sundry using them so that their maintenance costs are reduced. Complain to your local council and lobby to get the standard toilets opened rather than complaining that something that wasn’t meant for you isn’t available.

Absolute madness! What is wrong with people, complain, this is beyond ridiculous!

Yeah like others have said that’s not just a standard disability toilet. That’s specialist stuff.

The complaint shouldn’t be they wouldn’t let you use the totally not needed facility not designed for you and more why were the other toilets locked.

Though we know why. Vandalism because they are not kept locked via buzz entry.

Genuinely, I can't tell these days on here.

I sincerely hope so. Genius extended metaphor if so.

I think the poster was sarcastic.

Just fyi, if these are the toilets at the Tropicana, then Winston’s fish and chip place isn’t far (yes, I know it’s not a public toilet, but I’m sure they’d let you use their toilets, and if the worst came to the worst, you might have to buy some of their delicious chips)

Sorry, disabled toilets are 'woke bullshit'???

I presume your nose holding and shit metaphors are unintentionally hilarious.

Get in touch with your local Reform candidate and ask them to raise a fuss about woke bullshit.

Eventually, the legacy parties will realise that when they preside over shit public services, people will hold their nose and vote for almost anything that promises better.

We have an accessible toilet at work and when the cleaners work on the regular loos, we have to use the other toilet. There are two keys. When you go in, you take the key in with you but to lock it you push the handle down and that locks it. Numerous times other employees took the other key and unlocked from the outside.

So do you have to prove your disability to the person on the phone and then they decide whether you are disabled enough to use their toilet?

As previous people have said, this is a Changing Places not just a standard disabled toilet. The equipment is so expensive and as the sign states has been provided with help from a disabled charity. Im glad you have to buzz/ring for entry as it stops people who don't need it (and are just buying radar keys online!!) using it. If it was a radar key entry, it would more than likely get trashed straight away by groups of kids and others who don't actually need it and have wrongly bought radars.
I use Changing Places for my child who is a full time wheelchair user and needs hoisting and the use of the bench.
Your complaint needs to be to the council about why the regular toilets were closed, not about you not being able to access the Changing Place that you were rightly refused entry for.

Unless the lock is broken when its pretty much a free for all then. I've both accidentally opened and had doors opened on me.

If a ex with a radar lock is locked from the inside, they cannot be opened with a radar key. The internal and external locking systems are different.

How can a disabled person have priority if you are already in there?

It really isn’t difficult. If you have a condition which means you are likely to poo your pants at the drop of a hat, then you are considered disabled and should use the appropriate toilet.

What would you do in the event of a random pooing your pants emergency and there was no toilet?

I once used the mens toilet in Venice because there was a long queue for the womens. And I have used the disabled one many times rather than queue. A toilet is a toilet. A disabled loo just means that disabled people have priority) like seats on public transport) not that it cant be used by anyone else.

I suspect a lot of this is to do with vandalism. I worked for the council and you would be shocked at what people do to toilets. A real issue was seasonal loos that opened April-Oct and people accessing disabled loo with radar keys. Broken sinks, broken toilets blood spray up walls. Someone set fire to baby change unit once so a loo had to be shut down. Never reopened due to funding.

I appreciate you were genuine but they’ll probably of had another call from someone who sounded genuine and then thousands of pounds worth of carnage later the decision is taken from up high that this is the way to go.

Tbh I think the real issue is with the antisocial buggers who cause such destruction. I suspect it’s the sort of crime that doesn’t get prosecuted often. A small minority of people ruin things for the rest of us.

Oh dear , non disabled person gets the kind of treatment that disabled people get on an almost daily basis. You. Issue is with the able bodied toilets being closed, not the disabled ones.

This is the key point here. It’s not just a disabled toilet, it is a specialist facility, provided for a very specific purpose. It is not a public toilet. They need to be kept available for those who need them and letting others in to them puts additional maintenance and repair pressures on them.

These toilets are hard won as a result of some frustrating, difficult campaigning by people who frankly have quite enough on their plate but managed to fight for these spaces. They are usually a result of additional fundraising too. People who need to use them have already had to go quite far out of their way to get there after having searched to find their nearest facility. They have probably planned their entire day around this being available. This one is at Tropicana @ Weston Super-Mare. The next nearest one to this is half a mile away (if the town hall is open) or 3 miles away at Tesco. It would be incredibly frustrating to get there and find it in use by a non disabled person who is incapable of planning a walk to the beach without thinking about where they might go to the toilet.

What’s confusing to me is, the public toilets right next to there are managed by the same people you were on the phone to. I’m surprised they didn’t advise you or you didn’t ask why they were closed. They don’t have shutters on them so not sure what you mean by “shuttered”. Is it possible you didn’t want/weren’t able to pay the 30p to access them?

I’m also confused about you saying there was nowhere within a 1.5 mile radius you could find a toilet. There are a few cafes in the area. The main part where all the cafes are is a 15 minute walk. There’s the golf club a few minutes walk. There are a plethora of hotels you could have gone in to. I’m sure some kindly soul would have taken pity if you were absolutely desperate.

Your problem isn’t that wou weren’t able to access this toilet, it was that you believe there was no alternative but aren’t prepared to raise that issue with those who provide public toilets for non disabled people.

I dont need hoisting but I do use changing places toilets because I need room to park my large powerchair right next to the toilet so I can safely transfer. Standard accessible toilets (which by law only need to have a 1.5m turning circle) are rarely large enough for me to be able to even get my chair in, let alone be able to get out of said chair.

Yes, this is a legitimate use of a CP toilet. Page 7 of their PDF guide BTW.

Handicap is a decades old term, person with disabilities / disabled is the right one to use please. Thanks :)

They aren’t just for those needing hoisting. For example, some need the larger changing table but don’t need hoisting.