A town council on the Isle of Wight will have to pay out more than £5,000 after a judge found it breached the Equalities Act — due to the closing mechanism installed on a disabled toilet.
Joe Nash, 76, said he was prevented from accessing a wheelchair-accessible toilet at The Cut, on Cowes High Street, by Cowes Town Council (CTC) after it refused a request to remove a “very powerful” hydraulic door closure.
Mr Nash, who is a full-time wheelchair user due to strokes, and with only one good arm, said he made the claim, which was heard at the Isle of Wight County Court, after a week of difficulty and humiliation in 2021.
He was collecting in the High Street for Alzheimer’s Cafe, during Cowes Week, but had to wait for a passer-by to open the steel door for him.
As Mr Nash cannot speak, having to type out what he would like to communicate on his speaking machine and trying to summon a stranger to help him was “difficult, humiliating, embarrassing and traumatic”.
He complained about the facilities in 2018 to CTC after which it conducted an accessibility assessment and made adjustments to the self-closing mechanism on the door, lessening the force behind it.
It was still too difficult for Mr Nash to easily negotiate.
In its defence, CTC said it did not prevent Mr Nash from accessing the toilet and the facilities are for the general public, with any alterations needed to have consideration on the impact on wider users.
It said it did not discriminate and has made reasonable adjustments to ensure its public facilities meet regulations,
CTC said while it sympathised with the difficulties faced, it said it approached Mr Nash to see if he would be willing to assist in finding alternative ways of accessing the toilet but he refused to, leading CTC to believe the claim was being financially driven, rather than problem-solving — which Mr Nash refuted.
District Judge Andrew Grant concluded the case last week and said the case was a “curiosity” as the issue was not a complaint of failure to provide a disabled facility, it was that the facility was essentially not fit for purpose.
Judge Grant said there was no evidence CTC sought advice about what different options could be provided, including the removal of the self-closures, what those costs could be and whether the council could reasonably cope with the costs.
He said CTC did not take reasonable steps to make reasonable adjustments for Mr Nash and found it was in breach of duty, having discriminated against him.
“This is a specific facility which has failed to meet the needs of a disabled user,” Judge Grant said.
Judge Grant awarded Mr Nash £5,000 in damages and costs of £801.
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