Bolton: £100,000s to be spent on 'Changing Places' toilets

The £225,000 funding, one of the largest sums granted anywhere in the country, was released by the government for the development of “Changing Places” toilet facilities at three key spaces around the borough.

These will be found at Bolton Central Library and Museum, the Market Place shopping centre and at Bolton Wanderers FC’s ground at the Toughsheet stadium.

Cllr Akhtar Zaman, cabinet member for regeneration, said: “Firstly, Changing Places will offer facilities for people with disabilities in the town centre and at Middlebrook.

“This will be very important to the prospects for our town centre, as well as for Middlebrook, because they will help people, especially people with disabilities access these places more easily.”

New facilities will also be installed at the Market Place shopping centre (Image: Newsquest)

He added: “Over the years I have heard many comments from people with disabilities who may be visitors to these places saying to me that they’ve had problems with accessing disabled toilets in places around the town.

“So this really is good news for out town centre and for Bolton Central Library and Museum, the Market Place and for Middlebrook.”

Bolton Council agreed to accept the £225,000 grant funding at a meeting earlier this week.

There will also be new facilities at Middlebrook

Of that sum, £75,000 will be spent on Bolton Central Library and Museum, £65,000 on the Market Place and £85,000 on Bolton Wanderers Football Club.

The new facilities could make a big difference after a study found in March this year that there were fewer than a dozen disabled toilets across the borough. 

The government first announced the Changing Places Fund in July 2021, which was intended to invest around £30m in new disabled toilets all around the country.

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The Changing Places scheme will aim to provide new disabled toilet facilities, expected to be used by around 250,000 people, all around the country bringing the total up to 1,600.

The new toilets are designed to be larger than normal and with severely disabled people in mind.

They include equipment like hoists, privacy screens, adult-sized changing benches, peninsula toilets and space for carers.

Bolton Council has now accepted that it is responsible for delivering the works in the timescale set out by the funding agreement, which in this case is to the end of March next year.