Ms Bernadette Egan:

I have a comment on changing places, building design and facilities in general. It is important that accessibility be thought about very much from the beginning and not added in throughout the process, which almost never works. I recently had the experience of dealing with a changing facility project that had already gone out to tender and in respect of which a supplier had been appointed, yet when the drawing was put in front of me, I saw it did not work, even on a basic Part M level. Certainly I, in a motorised chair, would not have been able to use that changing place. Therefore, it is important that the process be correct and that disabled people be consulted very much at the beginning to make sure it works. There is nothing worse than spending so much money on a facility that does not do what it is supposed to do. It is a question of being aware that there is a process that needs to be adhered to.