Sink height drama

[QuiteQuietly]

I am in the midst of converting the attic and putting a bathroom up there. Everything has been chugging along ok, but now chap from the council is insisting I have my sink lower than I want it. The height he is demanding is lower than any other sink in the house, and to add to it all, I actually want the sink higher than standard as I am 5'11'' and fed up of stooping.

The council man says the sink has to be at a wheel-chair accessible height. However, it will be my personal bathroom up four flights of stairs. A wheelchair user could use any of the other bathrooms in the house and would have to be pretty damn determined to get up to the top floor. If a wheelchair user or really short person did buy my house in future, they could adjust the sinks themselves surely? Just as I am adjusting the house to meet my circumstances. I don't want to demean the trials of wheelchair-bound people, but surely I can have my sink at whichever height I want?

It will cost me a lot to have the bathroom done to his spec, and then the sink moved and wall retiled after he has gone. Can I tell him to get stuffed?

That does sound extremely odd. I would write to him and ask him to explain in writing the rationale for this demand and details of the policy he is looking to enforce and supporting information on which he is relying to make this demand. Is this in a private residence??

Bonkers. I am no expert but I thought having a wheelchair accessible toilet and sink only applied to new builds, and also only applied to the ground floor WC. Can you talk to his manager?

That does seem extremely strange and something I would have thought only applied to new builds or non-residential buildings.

We recently added two new bathrooms (as well as refitting one and adding a loo-tility room) and at no point during building regs inspections or sign-off was height of any of the four basins mentioned - in fact we have one that I think is of abnormally low height due to the design of the console it sits on.

However, we employed an independent building inspector and whilst he was very thorough and left no stone unturned, I got the impression (by comparison with previous experience of council inspectors) that he was less of a 'jobsworth' type.

In the future that might be something to consider.