Eve backs new loo campaign
Perthshire Olympic curling medallist Eve Muirhead has endorsed a £75,000 campaign to install a specialised public toilet for people with physical and learning disabilities in Pitlochry.
Professor Jason Leitch, the national clinical director for the Scottish Government, and John Swinney MSP are also backing the project for a ‘Changing Places Toilet’ at the Atholl Centre.
The Pitlochry Community Council is also supporting the venture and it is hoped that it will open up after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.
A Changing Places Toilet would provide enough space to accommodate a wheelchair user and two carers in a large room with a centrally placed toilet to facilitate toileting and changing assistance.
There will also be a height adjustable changing bench, a ceiling track hoist, and shower facilities provided.
The Atholl Centre has raised over £27,500 of the necessary £75,000 to make the building alterations and to purchase and install the special equipment.
Iain Walker, the director of the Atholl Centre, has announced that the plans to build the Changing Places Toilet in the centre is part of their 50th anniversary celebration year.
He said: “The Atholl Centre in Pitlochry is delighted that Eve Muirhead, the Olympic curling medallist and local girl, has endorsed its crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to install a Changing Places Toilet.
“The Pitlochry Community Council and the local MSP, John Swinney, are also endorsing this project as it will benefit the town in different ways, when it opens up after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Professor Jason Leitch is supporting us in this venture, which we are so pleased about.”
If the £50,000 target is reached the Atholl
Centre will be the first location to have a toilet of this kind installed in Highland Perthshire.
“Anyone with profound or multiple learning disabilities, as well people with other physical disabilities such as spinal injuries, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy will soon be able to locate a very special toilet in Pitlochry,” Mr Walker continued.
“These people are presently excluded from a wide range of activities because of their disabilities and are denied the freedom to travel and to go out for the day.
“This is because there is not a suitable toilet for them to use when they are away from home.”
A special app is also being made available which will display the location of the facility in Pitlochry.
This app, which indicates CPT locations round the country, has been supported by Pamis, based in Dundee University.
To support the project go to the crowdfunding page at www.crowdfunder. co.uk/athollcentre-changing-places-toilet
You can also send a cheque, made out to Atholl Centre, at the Atholl Centre, Atholl Road, Pitlochry, PH16 5BX.