Disabled woman dismayed council wants to build downstairs toilet in her living room

Richard Youle, Local Democracy Reporter

A disabled council house tenant who needs a downstairs toilet says she’s dismayed it’s going to be built in her living room where she eats her meals.

Sandra Robinson said following a visit from a surveyor and occupational therapist she’d expected the cloakroom would be an extension – similar to one she said has recently been built at a nearby property.

But Ms Robinson, who has a number of health conditions, has been advised by the council that the two-metre by one-metre cloakroom will go in the rear corner section of her open-plan living room where she currently has her dining table and chairs.

She’ll have to rearrange her things to make the most of less space and is uncomfortable with the prospect of using the toilet when family and friends were round for a meal.

“I don’t fancy eating by a toilet or people listening to me on the toilet,” she said. “It’s not dignified. It feels degrading.”

The council said using internal space for a cloakroom was an established approach for such adaptations where there was sufficient space and extensions were a last resort.

Ms Robinson, 60, has rented the three-bedroom house in Penllergaer for 29 years and brought up her son, a carpenter, and daughter, a trainee nurse. She did various jobs, including several years working as a carer, had a stint as a Penllergaer community councillor, and is a grandmother of five.

Health conditions have greatly reduced her mobility and she has a stairlift, which she wishes would get her upstairs more quickly.

Ms Robinson hoped the downstairs cloakroom could be added to the side of her semi-detached house beyond her kitchen – separated by a lobby – although two sheds would need to come down.

If that wasn’t possible she hoped it could go directly behind her rear living room so although it would be in close proximity to her dining table and chairs she wouldn’t lose living room space.

Her front living area has a three-piece suite, cabinets, and a television and leads off the hallway.

Ms Robinson’s local councillor Tony Fitzgerald advocated on her behalf.

Cost effective

Correspondence seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service indicated the council has to consider what’s reasonable, practicable, and cost-effective when using a pot of money for adaptations called the disabled facilities grant.

The correspondence said the extension referred to by Ms Robinson at a nearby property had specific factors involved and wasn’t a direct comparison and that the disabled facilities grant was in high demand. It added the council took the potential impact on Ms Robinson’s enjoyment of her home seriously.

In a statement the council said: “Whenever the council is looking to complete adaptation works at an existing council property we first assess whether the required adaptation can be accommodated within the existing home.

“Our occupational therapist and a surveyor met with the tenant at the property and, following the visit, it was determined that the property benefits from a relatively large open-plan ground floor area.

“The current proposal is therefore to construct a small ground-floor cloakroom within the existing living-dining area. This is an established and commonly used approach for delivering disabled facilities grant adaptations where sufficient internal space exists.

“Only where this is not feasible will an extension be considered as a last resort.”