More motorway service stations have been given funding for new Changing Places facilities, as part of the government’s pledge to ensure a third of the UK’s 158 motorway service stations have the facilities.
A second round of funding is now being launched, this time extended to include A roads, with operators of service stations on these routes, as well as on motorways, invited to bid.
A quarter of a million people who cannot use standard accessible toilets will benefit from the new facilities.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “In a modern country, everyone should be able to travel. Despite improvements in some areas, we need our roadside services to be better for the quarter of a million people who cannot use standard accessible toilets. This is why we would like to go even further by extending this to the trunk road network. I encourage as many operators as possible to apply for funding, to open up our road network to everyone who wants to use it.”
DR UK Head of Policy Fazilet Hadi said: “We welcome this initiative, and we would like to see the government extend the thinking from the Inclusive Transport Strategy into wider society – putting Changing Places into all town and city centres, hospitals and health care facilities, as well as all major leisure facilities.”